Roseland 61 – Lankelly Fowey 0

Roseland turn it on with big win

Roseland finally played a game of rugby after the best part of a month off due to cancellations and the poor weather. Roselands last fixture was against the same opponents in the Tribute Cup and they pulled off an unconvincing 17-0 victory.

With the return of league rugby and just 4 fixtures remaining for Roseland to clinch the league title they knew that a performance was needed to grease the wheels before their crunch fixture versus St Just at Philleigh on 5th March. With the return of several players from work commitments, the shooting season and injury Roseland boasted a strong 15 and a full bench.

On a brisk but dry afternoon Roseland played up the slope to start and with the wind blowing across the pitch neither side had a true wind advantage. Roseland got into their stride quickly and put the pressure on Lankelly early with some strong ball carrying from the kick off.

Roselands first try came from a strong rolling maul off a lineout and prop Martin Kneebone came up with the ball for the try credit. Full back Davo Williams slotted the conversion on what was to be an excellent goal kicking day for him.

Roseland played the game at a high tempo and tried to keep the bigger Lankelly pack out of the game. It was from such high tempo play that Roseland secured their next 3 tries. Their was a brace for full back Davo Williams and the first of a pair for centre Matt Eddy. All 3 were converted by Davo Williams to bring the half time score to 28-0.

With the game all but secured at half time anybody could of forgiven Roseland for easing off the accelerator. However Roseland weren’t in the generous mood and continued in the same vain as they left off. With some lovely interplay between forwards and backs a like and a quick tempo to the game Lankelly started to tire and the Roseland pack started to dominate at scrum time. Roseland also started to ring the changes so the whole bench got a good run out. It meant various positional changes for several personnel. However this didn’t affect Roselands scoring opportunities.

Eddy grabbed his second try of the day after good hands created space for him burst into before throwing a lovely dummy and a shimmy to beat the last man to coast in under the posts. Davo Williams converted. This was his last contribution and gave him a personal haul 20 points.

The next try came for second row James Palmer who crashed over from close range after a botched Roseland lineout that saw No8 Nathan Chapman pulled up just short. Centre Eddy smashed his conversion into the post in what was to be the only missed kick of the day.

Roselands next try came after some more quick play caused disruption in the “Kelly” defence and a burst from, now flanker, James Palmer beat 2 defenders before taking the tackle and offloading to the supporting Tom Day who cantered over for a try. Eddy converted.

Palmer was involved again in Roselands next try as he again turned provider to set up a score for veteran fly half Shaun Eamer to bundle over near the posts. Eddy again converted.

Roselands scoring was completed when Man of the Match Palmer found himself in space to score his second try of the afternoon and again Eddy converted to bring his personal tally to 16 points.

The final 61-0 score line possibly flattered Roseland slightly. To be fair to Lankelly they never gave up and defended stoutly and a few times had Roseland defending their try line, however unfortunately for “Kelly” they came across a Roseland side who hadn’t played for a month and who knew they owed themselves a performance.

Roseland can now look forward to their crunch match with St Just on Saturday knowing that victory will all but secure top spot in Cornwall Two.