CULLOMPTON fell well short of completing a league double over St Austell when they lost 46-9 at Stafford Park in South West 1 (West) on Saturday.

The opening two minutes of the game was a portent of the direction this match was ultimately to take.

St Austell’s opening drop-out was spilled into touch and the full- strength visiting team never let Cully off the hook with their fly- half Liam Freeman getting his side off to a 5-0 lead with an unconverted try.

Cullompton gradually got a grip on the contest with some well-constructed phases of play, steadily making ground into opposition territory.

Then a seemingly indisciplined St Austell infringed and Cully full-back Adam Pearce punished them with three successful penalty goals, taking the score to 9-5.

When a scrum is taking place the temptation for a back to creep over the five metre line is undeniable, especially when the referee has his back turned, attention fully on 16 wily forwards and two equally wily scrum halves.

When winger Josh Barratt pounced on a St Austell back as the ball was moved through the hands from a scrum on 26 minutes he was penalised and sin binned for tackling from an off side position although one or two of the players near him contended that his lightning advance had just made it appear that way.

What was undebatable however was that in the ten minute absence of this key player St Austell scored tries through winger Ben Chenoweth and full-back Dan Pearce and a penalty for scrum half Andy Ashwin – who also converted both tries – to produce a commanding 22-9 lead by the break.

The second half was an interesting demonstration of the effect of confidence.

Cullompton, with a mountain to climb, seemed unable to string together enough phases, without spilling the ball, to build any significant positions and conceded quite a few penalties – an aspect not helped by one or two hair-trigger decisions at the breakdown.

In contrast St Austell, with a good lead, played with flamboyance and soon collected a chip and chase try by centre Alex Welland and turned penalties into territorial advantage for two further touchdowns.

One of these was for heavyweight prop Hugh Noot and the other for centre Callum Wilson which Ashwin managed to convert.

In the final minutes Cullompton showed they still had what it takes as they occupied the St Austell 22 for a lengthy period.

But instead of securing a morale-boosting consolation score, a moment’s lack of concentration saw the ball in the hands of Welland who ran the length of the pitch for his second and his side’s seventh try of the match. Ashwin converted to make it 46-9.

Apart from another heavy loss Cullompton supporters did have the chance to see, in a difficult match for any player’s first senior appearance, the full league debut of a young Cully lad at scrum half, Tim Edworthy.

Edworthy acquitted himself well under pressure with some good passing and fearless tackling and also had to cope with the illegal attentions of his experienced opposite number Ashwin who pushed him on the put in and held on to his shirt every time the referee was unsighted.

Inevitably he and the other Cully youngster Martin Keywood, playing for a second week, showed their inexperience by giving away a penalty or two but it was heartening to see two players emerge from the junior set-up with the potential to hold down regular places in the team for some years to come.

Supporters will see the pair again, availability permitting, this Saturday at Stafford Park as Chris Wall hopes to give both a start in the Devon Senior Cup semi final game against Newton Abbott.