Head coach Nick Skinnard revealed that he was proud of his Saltash side after they were defeated 22-18 by Yorkshire side Wath Upon Dearne at Twickenham in the RFU Senior Vase final, writes Gareth Davies.

A try from prolific winger Will Morton and a penalty conversion from Harrison Reburn put Saltash 8-3 ahead in the opening 30 minutes.

However, the game changed when Wath scrum-half Joseph Bartlett was sin-binned and instead of Salatsh pressing home their man advantage, Wath scored twice before the break to take the lead.

After the interval, Lewis Wells touched down Saltash before hit back again when they were awarded a penalty try and despite a late Ryan Cruickshanks try, Wath held on.

’Obviously, I’m disappointed,’ he told the Cornish Times.’“We’ve been promoted this year and got to a National Final, but we want to be competitive and win every game.

’Eight years ago, we lost to Truro by over 100 points, with half the team that played at Twickenham playing that day too as young kids.

’Those same lads have come to Twickenham and have just been outmuscled by a very good Wath team, so I’m not upset with their efforts and it’s no good looking back and thinking if we could have done things differently in the match and those thoughts will pass very quickly.

’Proud is a word you should use sparingly, but we are proud to have got to the Final, but sometimes you just can’t win every game.

’Full marks to Wath, they changed the way they played at half-time as they kept the ball ridiculously close after half-time.

’Absolutely full-marks to them for that as they realised they weren’t going to be able to run around after us all afternoon.

’So, to be able to do that that makes the disappointment of losing rather less as it’s good decision making on their behalf and a quality like that has to admired.’

Despite the loss on the big stage, Skinnard still feels that his side have had a successful 2017-18 campaign with promotion back into Western Counties West secured last month.

He also revealed that Saltash were keen to establish themselves in their new League surroundings next season after the veteran coach admitted the club ‘made a bit of hash of it’ the last time they played at that level.

’When we drive home on the bus I’ll think back to six or seven years ago when we couldn’t raise a side,’ he added. ’There are 123 sides that play at our level and they would all love to be playing in a Final at Twickenham.

’Inevitably I’m going to feel flat, but still very pleased at how our season has gone as a whole.

’We went up a few years ago and made a bit of a hash of it in all honesty. It wasn’t anything major, just little things, but we are a better side and a more competent unit.

’The Final loss will just give us a little reminder that we’re not perfect at certain things and if we had won by 10-15 points, pre-season would have been much harder.

’The loss gives us that extra motivation to get better and move forward as a team and a club.’