PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY
St Columba-Torpoint 0
Liskeard-Looe 51
Liskeard-Looe travelled to Torpoint on Saturdayto play a pre-season match against Devon 1 club St Columba-Torpoint; a game that was played in four quarters in order to be able to field all the players who were available.
Included in the match squad were new centre Fijian Naita Timoci, new forward Jason Brown, as well as Jan Spierings (after several seasons away from the game), Gareth Cooke (who missed all of last season through injury), Dan Goodman (who missed most of last season through unavailability) and Sam Hooper, Jack Badnall, Billy Edwards and Ollie Payne (all four having played Colts rugby last term).
In the first quarter tries were scored for Liskeard by fullback Kieran Underhill and Billy Edwards, in the second quarter Underhill scored the third try of the game with Gareth Cooke adding a fourth try, taking the score to 20-0 at the halfway stage.
In the third quarter Goodman scored a try when he spotted a narrow opening down the blind side of a ruck and Cooke scored a second with Pete Regan, finally finding his range, adding the extras and Lewys Evans dotting down to finish off a Timoci break.
In the final quarter young Billy Edwards scored again, Cooke scored his hat-trick try and Regan finished off the scoring by adding the extras for both of these to take the final score to 51-0.
All the new players, especially the youngsters, certainly didn’t look out of place and will be worthy of selection.
It had been a worthwhile run-out to integrate the new players into the senior squad, although there is still lots of work to do on the training pitch before the opening fixture which, if Ivybridge 3rds can raise a team, will be at Lux Park, Liskeard, on Saturday, September 5, in Plymouth Rugby Combination’s premier competition the Lockie Cup.