CULLOMPTON have high hopes of recording just their fifth victory of the season tomorrow when they entertain St Austell at Stafford Park (2.30pm).

With Marcus Busch and hopefully Alex Ford available for selection, Cully should manage to field a more normal line-up as they chase a rare double after beating their Cornish visitors 29-15 away in the league in December.

With a drier Friday in prospect the South West 1 match should go ahead, but with the possibility of rain on Saturday afternoon the Cully scrum will probably have a vital role to play and place kicking could well be a deciding factor.

Fortunately both these features have gone well for Cullompton lately.

Saturday’s 60-14 defeat by Camborne was very much in line with the expectations of Cully supporters.

The team lacked a number of regulars, leaving a lighter pack than usual, but a second quarter fightback with a try apiece for Matt Handford and Josh Barratt – bringing the score back to 19-14 at one point – lifted the spirits of spectators and players alike.

Cully their heads up to the end, despite the home side’s six second- half touchdowns.

The opening try illustrated a recurring Cullompton difficulty during the game, their inability to deal with the heavy Camborne maul to the satisfaction of the referee.

After pressure along the Cully five and a number of penalties Camborne centre, Steve Kenward, broke through the disrupted defence for an unconverted try.

Straight from the restart Camborne discovered that Cully were also vulnerable to their backs running back the ball at them before a defensive line formed and from the dropout some good running and passing put in their No8 Dave Roberts for a try by the posts giving stand-off David Mankee an easy conversion.

On 20 minutes Cully were unlucky to see 12-0 became 19-0. A rapid Camborne break from a mid field scrum left behind the referee who was unable to observe an obvious forward pass that put through full-back Alex Ducker although Ducker’s chip and chase for his try was well executed as was Mankee’s conversion.

The next 20 minutes provided a much-needed tonic for the supporters and a shot in the arm for the players that kept them going to the final whistle.

A Cully maul that had formed from a midfield lineout was making progress when the ball squirted out the side.

Second row Matt Handford was quick to gather and cover the 40 metres to the line for a try by the posts giving fly-half Adam Pearce an easy two points.

If there was an element of a breakaway score about this try it was certainly not the case for the next one.

A good tackle by Cully lock Josh Mammola on his opposite number Ashley Lawton forced the penalty and was the start of a patient build up.

Pearce’s penalty put the ball beyond the Camborne ten and hooker Chris Grant found flanker Ollie Reed held high at the back of the line-out with the ensuing maul taking play into the opposition 22.

The referee detected ‘truck and trailer’ and it was a Camborne scrum but the lighter Cully pack pressurised the heavier Camborne unit and won a scrum of their own when the defenders dropped the ball.

The Cully set piece made a firm platform for No8 Steve Nockles to feed the chain of quick hands leading to winger Josh Barratt who for the second time in the afternoon had the line at his mercy but on this occasion with no referee’s whistle to stop him he touched down and Pearce kicked well to convert.

From this point on it was all Camborne.

Scrum half Taron Peacock and his replacement Neil Stanleick scored either side the break, the mercurial Ducker added two more, Lawton grabbed a brace at the back of the maul and replacement wing Gareth Mankee got the final one.

Although Cully tried their best during this period they did contribute to their own downfall as it only needed a clearance to land in the wrong hands or the occasional missed tackle to set Camborne off and once away they were invariably clinical.

Cully found the Camborne forwards a handful in the maul and were unlucky to lose Reed in the second half.

A heavy tackle left him completely inert for three or four minutes and although he eventually sat up and gave a cheery thumbs up with a broad grin, the decision to let him carry on meant Cully were effectively down to 14 as he was not functioning normally and had no recollection of the second half after the game.

Cully fielded two newcomers from Withycombe. Aaron Conway played well at centre but Adam Morris, who started at full-back, pulled a hamstring in the first five minutes and was eventually joined on the sideline by Reed which left only one replacement to cover players who were not really match fit for the full 80 minutes.