LAUNCESTON head coach Steve Perry hopes last year’s double defeat to St Austell will ‘motivate the players and the club’ as they prepare to head to Tregorrick Park tomorrow (2.30pm) in Regional One South West.

Perry took over in the summer from Ryan Westren and so far has seen the All Blacks narrowly lose at promoted Trowbridge before last weekend’s 38-31 impressive victory over much-fancied Brixham at Polson Bridge.

Reflecting on their success over the Fishermen, Perry said: “It was great to win in front of our supporters, and long may it continue. We carried on from where we left off in the second half up at Trowbridge, and played really well in the first half to open up a good lead.

“Brixham then showed their quality to get some tries back, helped by a couple of yellow cards from us, but it was brilliant to beat a very, very good side in our division.”

He continued: “I was particularly pleased with our accuracy in the first half, our set-piece went well and we retained the ball well for long periods of the time.

“We know we still need to work on our discipline in the collision area whether that’s tackling or clearing out as we’re still being penalised there, but overall it was a really good day.”

Unsurprisingly there are minimal changes tomorrow as the former Barnstaple, Exmouth and Newton Abbot coach explains, although last year’s first team skipper Tom Sandercock has made a surprise return having decided to take a break from the game.

He said: “There are three alterations to the squad. James Tucker is on holiday with young Albie Newton replacing him at fly-half, Dan Pearce is going to play there for the Castles, so Billy Martin comes in for him on the wing and Tom Sandercock has agreed to help us out on the bench which is great news.”

Perry made close to 200 appearances for Lanson as a player, but is gearing up for his first experience of a Cornish derby as a coach.

“St Austell won both games last year which will hopefully motivate both the players and the club, but the challenge for us is to play as well as we have in the last game and a half as we started our last away game really poorly”, he added. “Hopefully we can go down there tomorrow and lay down a marker.”

However, both teams have several familiar faces missing from last year for various reasons, which only adds to the occasion.

He concluded: “They’re quite unknown to us. Sam (Parsons) has recruited some players from around the world who we expect to be very good players, but we’re also quite similar as we had seven debuts at Trowbridge. The fact that both sides are quite different to last year and slightly in transition is probably the exciting part of it.

“We don’t know exactly what to expect, and nor will they, but it should be a really good day out with the Castles playing their seconds afterwards (in Counties Two Cornwall, 4.45pm). Hopefully there’ll be as many Launceston supporters there as possible.”

LAUNCESTON at St Austell: Ollie Bebbington; Sheldon Higgins, Eoin Baker, Jack Easton, Billy Martin; Albie Newton, George Hillson; Mitch Hawken (capt), Archie Doidge, Charlie Short; Devon Bennett-Murray, Dan Goldsmith; Charlie Tummon, Lloyd Duke, George Harris. Replacements: Alex Bartlett, Rory Mead, Cian Baker, Jed Griffin, Tom Sandercock.

LAUNCESTON CASTLES at St Austell Seconds: Freddie Ward, Lucas Cackett, Joe Vanstone, George Alvis, James Heale; Dan Pearce, Ollie Tomkies; Sam Snell, Luke Howe, Simon Burden; Finn Stiles, Zander Zambuni; Lewis Dennis, Andy Rowe, Brandon Rowley (co-captain). Replacements: Tom Stevens (co-captain), Ben Greene, Pete Bebbington, Harvey Fry.