Brewers end cup dream

Saturday saw the Cornwall Clubs Cup Quarter Finals taking place across the county with an all Cornwall One clash between seeing Bodmin travel to Perranporth.
It was the Brewers who advanced out scoring their visitors by five tries to three and building a comprehensive 22-0 lead that Bodmin were never able to quite recover from.

Having defeated Perranporth twice during the league season Bodmin had plenty to be confident about before the game kicked off, but the first forty minutes were completely dominated by an invigorated Perranporth who scored four unanswered tries to see Bodmin staring down the barrel and going out of the Cornwall Clubs Cup.

The first try came after the hosts strung some relatively simple phases together only for Bodmin to cause their own undoing as missed tackles allowed Perranporth to slice through the defence and open the scoring. The conversion was then added by the Perranporth fly half.

Bodmin looked to get themselves back into the game immediately and worked the ball into a promising position just inside the home 22. Misfortune then struck as an attacking move saw fly half Mark Trevarthen and centre Paul Carter clash heads in contact with the ball subsequently spilt and turned over. Perranporth then jumped on the chance to counter attack, and with Bodmin in disarray, quickly advanced up the field to see the home sides left wing dive over in the corner for an unconverted try.

The visitors again looked to respond but invariably seemed to panic in attack with simple handling errors and wayward passing compounding a woeful start to the knock out stages of the cup. Perranporth then added their third try of the day, once more Bodmin proving to be their own worst enemy, as tackles were missed in midfield to see the Brewers 12 bust through the defence and over the whitewash for a 17-0 lead. The conversion was missed.

Perranporth were in complete control and Bodmin rattled. The hosts then caused further agony for Bodmin as some neat offloading and a change of direction in play saw Perranporth's prop touchdown in the corner and extend the lead to unassailable 22-0 at half time.

The half time break couldn't have come soon enough for Bodmin. A stern dressing down during the break and a complete emptying of the replacements bench saw Bodmin come out for the second forty desperately trying to keep their cup hopes alive.

In the first ten minutes of the half it seemed little had changed as Perranporth were still very much in the ascendancy and bursting through the Bodmin defensive line. Some dogged scramble defence managing to prevent further scores.

However Bodmin then seemed to shift in attitude as they began to throw caution to the wind and run the ball from anywhere on the pitch, upping the pace of the game at every opportunity. The revised strategy seemed to work as the visitors marched up the pitch in double quick time before some cynical Perranporth infringements slowed the ball down close to the try line. Quick tap penalties were taken though and a sizeable gap then appeared for replacement centre Andrew Coad to crash over the line. Cody Armstrong added the conversion.

The change of tact combined with the try saw a significant change in momentum with Bodmin continuing to put their foot on the accelerator. A second try wasn't then long in coming as the Clifden Park side made numerous half breaks before play was switched from one direction to the other with Carter on the end of an overlap to run in out wide. Armstrong added the conversion, aided by Carters efforts to get as close to the posts as possible.

At 22-14 the comeback seemed possible only for Perranporth to dash those brief beliefs as Bodmin's high risk game saw the home side intercept a pass inside the Bodmin 22 before setting up just one ruck and shifting the ball wide with one pass for a free run to the corner. With the score at 27-14 with just over ten minutes to go Bodmin still had a mountain to climb.

Bodmin did however breathe life right back into the comeback dream as Coad powered through the Perranporth line and outpaced the covering defence to score under the posts. Armstrong added his thirds conversion to reduce the deficit to just 6 points with just as many minutes left on the clock.

Perranporth, just needing to run down the clock, did so effectively. Slowing play down whenever they could and ensuring Bodmin were unable to create the pace that had reinvigorated the game in the second half. Despite Bodmin's best efforts they were unable to create that crucial chance and grab a try in the closing minutes.

Perranporth greeted the full time whistle with delight accompanied by a degree of relief as they advanced to next weekends Semi Final. Bodmin, utterly dejected at the whistle, were left to rue a completely forgettable first half performance which saw them near enough out of the competition within forty minutes.

Bodmin now have just one game left in the season in the Cornwall/Devon Promotion Playoff which will now take place this Saturday following their exit from the Cornwall Clubs Cup. Bodmin will host Devon One runners up Totnes for a place in Cornwall/Devon 2014/15 and end an impressive season with reason for celebration. The Cornwall One side hope to entertain a large home crowd with the game being combined with Bodmin RFC's Sponsors' Day.

Bodmin: J Rutty, S Williams, G Taylor, J Day, L Thomas, M Orton, O Wendon, L Taylor (c), S Helgesen, M Trevarthen, A MacPhee, A Pengelly, P Carter, C Armstrong, D Pooley

Replacements: A Trevarthen, D Cullip, A Coad, R Jenkin

Tries: Coad (2), Carter
Conversions: Armstrong (3)