Together with the lifting of lockdown on Wednesday 2nd December, the RFU announced that we shall immediately move to Stage E along the Return to Rugby Roadmap and that an adapted version of the 15-a-side is to be introduced.
Rather than explain all, chapter and verse, please refer to www.englandrugby.com for detailed information for news regarding the adapted game, relevant dates and all the latest guidance where there is plenty of explanatory reading material.
As a club, while currently seeking to respectfully canvas the individual views, wishes and opinions of all players, we have decided to recommence training on Tuesday 5th January followed hopefully by arranging friendly fixtures from either the end of January or early February.
This, of course, will ultimately be driven by Government regulations/guidelines and player appetite.
In the meantime we hope that all members and their families remain safe and healthy and wish everybody a Merry Christmas while hoping that 2021 is a better year for us all.

“pre season” training, Saturday 5th September, 2.30pm, Philleigh

As life very slowly begins to get back to normal, so does the rugby season. The RFU have now moved community rugby on to stage D of the ‘return to rugby community roadmap’.

This means that clubs are now able to organise non-contact fixtures with other clubs using Ready4Rugby and other touch rugby activity. Limited and restricted contact rugby training is also now allowed. Varied training conditions will allow the return of tackling, lineouts and rucks, ensuring that players are prepared to perform these skills safely and effectively with some restrictions. Mauls, scrums, opposed lineouts or upright tackles are still not permissible as the transmission exposure risk remains high. Contact training sessions have to be carried out in small groups of no more than six players.

The league season for level 3 clubs and below will not start until November at the very earliest and the next announcement regarding this will be on 2nd October

Social distancing and other extra precautionary measures will be in place where applicable but all players new or old are welcome to come and join. See you there!

Further to last month’s announcement that there was to be no AGM this year, just one new nomination was received for any Club Officer/Committee position.

Alex Benbow was nominated for the position of Club Captain – proposed by Joe Davidson and seconded by Ant Thomas.  With no other nominations received, approval of the Committee and Ant being prepared to give up the captaincy role, Alex is duly elected.

While congratulating Alex upon his appointment, the club would like to express sincere thanks to Ant for his undoubted efforts and commitment over the past two seasons. Moving forward in these difficult times, we now need to get behind and support Alex In his new role as we all work towards getting back to playing rugby, hopefully in the not too distant future.

As many players, VP’s, sponsors and other members are doubtless aware, the forthcoming 2020/21 season is the 50th Anniversary Season for Roseland RFC.
However, having taken account of the so many extraordinary challenges that lie ahead, not least being that we really don’t know when Community Club Rugby will be allowed to meaningfully recommence, the Committee has taken an early decision to postpone all 50th Anniversary celebrations until the 2021/22 season.   Having experienced difficultly in trying to make some very basic arrangements, we agreed that we should concentrate all our efforts on dealing with the many COVID 19 related issues which will doubtless challenge our resources.   
Our 50th Anniversary is very important to us all and, as disappointed as we are to postpone, this decision has been made in the best interests of safety to our members.   So, in effect, we shall be celebrating 50 completed years as opposed to our 50th season, something we still intend to do with great style once life has hopefully returned to something closer to normal. 

Our Annual General Meeting is due to take place on Tuesday 30th June but obviously we can’t proceed with this normally as planned.  Although more senior clubs with suitable resources are conducting an AGM by video conferencing, this is unfortunately not feasible for ourselves and our AGM has regrettably had to be cancelled.   Upon the basis of no AGM, our Committee has decided that it is best that Club Officers and Committee personnel should remain unchanged unless either, any individual doesn’t wish to continue in the current role or that somebody new wishes to be nominated.   To be clear, this doesn’t necessarily mean that there can’t be changes and nominations need to be sent by email to N.Sylvester@hotmail.co.uk. by Tuesday 23rd June.   Any nominations must have consent of the nominee together with names of a Proposer and Seconder – all must be current club members.In the event that any voting becomes a necessity, we shall devise a suitable method.  
There is currently one vacancy within “Other Committee” – although no requirement to fill this position, it is preferable that any nominee is a current player.

Current Club Officers & Officials:
President    – David Thomas
Chairman.  – Richard Cotterill
V-Chair.      – Chris Thomas
Secretary   – Nick Sylvester
Treasurer   – Catherine Thomas
Captain      – Ant Thomas
Asst. Treasurer – Joe Davidson
Fixture Sec. – Owen Rawlings
Social & Media – Andy Harris
CRFU Rep.  – David Williams
Club Coach – Andy Day
Other Committee  – Nathan Chapman, Andrew Stark & Ed Llewelyn 

We have now secured our very limited allocation for the 2020 Guinness Six Nations Championship matches.
Following the retirement of Graham Pauncefoot from administering these, after many years of service for which the club is extremely grateful, there will no longer be a list posted in The Roseland Inn for ticket applications.
Under the new system, eligible sponsors, VP’s and club members should apply by contacting our Club Secretary, Nick Sylvester, by email to n.sylvester@hotmail.co.uk by Sunday 1st December 2019.
Allocation to members will be made soon after and based upon supply/demand by taking account of applications received by that date.

Roseland travelled to Stithians looking for another win but with Stithians narrowly losing away to Helston last week the Roseland boys knew this would be no pushover. Stithians began with a depleted squad and the Roseland squad wasn’t as big as usual either. Christian Benbow was again missing. He’d recovered from his broken nail but couldn’t afford his match fees because he’d spent £41 on a haircut. Nathan Chapman was carrying a knock but was forced to play because Andrew Stark was tired from going to the gym for the first time in six months. Roseland and referee favourite David “Gerbil” Martin was immediately loaned to Stithians for the entire game to witter them into submission and Tommy Whiles, still hungover from the night before, stood on the sidelines making a good windbreak.

The forecast was saying rain to arrive at 3pm and for once they were unfortunately right. As Roseland kicked off, what felt like half of Stithians resevoir began to fall out of the sky.

From the kick off it was immediately clear how the game was going to go. Nobody could catch the bar of soap so everyone just tucked it up their jumpers and ran with it. This was going to be a game for the forwards. There were some huge collisions with first Jellybean and then Sterky sending Stithians defenders flying. Unfortunately for Stithians they lost some key players to injury as the Roseland forwards battered them time and time again.

The first try came from a Roseland scrum. The big Roseland pack pushed Stithians back and as Nathan Chapman skillfully walked the ball forward a Stithians defender came in at the side and in desperation collapsed the scrum as it was about to cross the line. The referee had no choice but to award a penalty try.

Stithians immediately ran back to the half way line and took a quick kick off catching the Roseland defence unaware. Most of whom were still swimming back through the mud to their own half. Stithians won a penalty from the quick kick and another great penalty kick put them deep into the Roseland 22. By this point the Roseland river monsters were finally back in position and defended well to keep out the Stithians attack.

For a while both teams looked well matched, with neither team being able to hang on to the ball. Roseland looked dangerous when it did go wide but it was hard to get the ball out in the conditions. Top try scorer 1987 Sam Glanville found himself one on one with Gerbil but chose not to back his pace against the stand in Stithians prop. Callum Grahamslaw was seen shivering on the wing whilst his mum offered him a blanket to keep warm. Will Rundle wasn’t seen again until half time, reappearing from the mizzle and the long grass. The referee (who after the game claimed not to know Rundle’s mother despite the obvious similarities) looked very worried about him.

The next try came from another Roseland scrum in the centre of the park. This time number 8 Chapman picked up, shrugged off the stithians 9 and scored under the posts. Joe Punchings slotted the conversion.

Half time Stithians 0-14 Roseland

The second half was littered with stoppages. More injuries to Stithians players and a number of handling errors due to the conditions didn’t help matters. Sam Glanville dropped a high ball after tripping over a molehill in the corner and Sterky tackled a Stithians defender off of the ball.

Jon Goodenough was finding plenty of traction with his boots and propelled the Roseland scrum forward again. Chapman capitalised on this by scoring his second and Roseland’s third. Punchings converted smartly again.

By this point Stithians had the good, the bad and the ugly (Doug, Dickie and Gerbil) playing for them but they could do nothing to stop Nathan Chapman and the other magnificent 7 Roseland forwards from scoring off another scrum. Chapman completing his hat trick in front of the committed travelling fans. From wide out Joe Punchings judged the wind perfectly and slotted the conversion. Final score Stithians 0-28 Roseland

Finally thanks must be said to referee Trevor Stribley (who tells me he’s a big fan of the match reports) for a) asking Ant “oh so you’re allowed out to play this week?” b) stopping the game and letting us all warm up in the pub as soon as possible!

This week Roseland travelled down to the dark depths of Redruth to face Albany in their third league game of the season. Rumours of Albany struggling for players were unfortunately true but history has shown us that anything can happen in Rugby and no game can be taken for granted. Albany lined up with 14 Spartans against the mighty Roseland empire. Rhys Daniels disguised as a wooden horse but less mobile was given to Albany as a gift to even the teams up.

The game started well for Roseland who scored within 2 minutes through a storming Nathan Chapman run. Even so, the Roseland boys looked sloppy and it was understandably hard for them to get up for the game. They seemed more intent on hurting Rhys at every opportunity rather than scoring. A point proven by Josh Little when rather than passing the ball with a two man overlap outside him he decided to step back in and aim straight for Rhys. This seemed to awaken the Trojan horse and when he next recieved the ball he ran 40 yards beating Roseland defenders left right and centre. Albany, inspired by their wooden leader then scored under the posts and confidently drop kicked the conversion to level up the scores.

Roseland needed to buck their ideas up and thankfully they did. Dan HBH Wilkins was happy to be helpful and made his first Roseland tackle, Ant Thomas was spotted doing something, Welsh weapon Toby had a delightful out the back offload and slow motion replays showed Jellybean sending an Albany defender for a hot dog. The confidence rose and the tries started to come.

Ben Humphries dived over in the corner for the second try after the ball was passed nicely through the hands. Joe Kitchens then ran 50 yards, dummied two defenders, ran out of puff and fell over the line for the third. Andrew “Greedy” Stark scored the fourth and fifth, beating numerous defenders when a simple pass outside would have been the easier option. Tommy Whiles got the sixth but struggled to bend and put the ball down over his belly.

More chances were squandered in the first half due to poor handling in the greasy conditions and some great tackling from the Albany players. Tommy had another disallowed and Dan borked bad when his first ever Roseland try was disallowed for a forward pass. Torquil “Dickie” Tonks dazzled the Albany players with his fancy footwork and even fancier name but wasted another golden opportunity by choosing not to use a three man overlap. Luckily these mistakes weren’t punished and Ben Humphries (filling in for Sam Glanville at fullback who had fallen out with the captain and gone to Butlins with Veryan FC) scored his second of the afternoon and Roseland’s seventh. HT score Redruth Albany 7-45 Roseland

Roseland picked up where they left off in the first half and quickly scored again. Ben Humphries completing his hattrick. Josh Little then galloped in to score under the posts for the ninth try.

Despite the score Albany continued to cause problems for Roseland. They looked weak under the high ball. Ant Thomas’s little T Rex arms not long enough to catch the ball in front of his belly and double agent Stark (he played for Albany but was deemed surplus to requirement) not knowing which side he was playing for, knocking on twice off of the kick off and another as soon as he switched shirts.

The highlight of the match had to be when Jellybean made a clean break though the Albany defence down the right wing, realised he was on the half way line and couldn’t run that far so dropped the ball. The crowd erupted with laughter! Soon after, Jelly switched to play for Albany and caused nothing but problems for Roseland. He left a huge hole in defence that couldn’t be filled and then flattened Ant and Bevan. However, Albany should have scored again but Jelly wasted their best opportunity by passing the ball straight into touch. Well done Jelly!

Roseland continued to rack up the points and Will Rundle scored after a long Alex Benbow run. Not to be outdone, Joe Kittens converted with a drop goal. Matt Willsher then finished off a lovely move under the posts before scoring again by running through two defenders rather than round them for the eleventh and twelfth tries.

Rowen Rawlings (not real name, don’t tell his mrs) then made his debut for the season but I think he thought he was still playing in the 80s. Andrew Stark continued to have no idea which side he was playing for and pulled his team mate Bevan out of a ruck. Joe Stitchings picked up his weekly injury. Rhys scored one last try and converted it with a drop goal himself. Andy Harris wearing full kit with no intention of playing continued to scribble notes as fast as he could, Will May turned up in fancy dress and the ref blew the whistle, having seen enough madness for one day. Final score Redruth Albany 7-85 Roseland

This week Roseland welcomed Perranporth for their first home game of the season. The sun was shining, there wasn’t a breath of wind and the pitch was looking pristine.

The game got underway with Perranporth playing down the gentle slope. Roseland were immediately put under pressure and Perranporth scored in the left corner within 5 minutes after a lovely flowing move. It looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for the Roseland boys and fun fun fun for the beach boys.

Roseland were pinned back in their own half for most of the first half. Doug “the head” Moore on his first start for Roseland was a menace, making tackle after tackle and Alex “favourite son” Benbow was at it again. The one man wrecking ball was making huge hits all afternoon like Miley Cyrus or a young Will May

When Roseland did have the ball they looked lackadaisical and rather than playing good simple rugby, often tried to overcomplicate things with offloads in the tackle. A chip and chase from Joe Hutchings drew groans from the crowd and even the usually calm and collected coach Andy Day was said to be fuming.

Roseland did eventually get their act together and were unlucky not to score before half time but a combination of great defensive work by Perran and panicking by Roseland meant that at the break the scores stayed Roseland 0-5 Perranporth

Luckily for the Roseland faithful this was one of those cliché games of two halves. Changes were needed at the break and the return of Andrew “daddy” Stark was a key one. New found fatherhood and the off season hadn’t been kind to Starky’s waistline but he wasted no time in throwing his weight around. Running from deep and hitting some great lines he drove Roseland forward.

Burt Jacobs came on for his first game this season and made an immediate impact, chasing down a Joe Chitchings penalty kick that didn’t quite make touch and tackling the Perran fullback. Isolated, the Perran player didn’t release the ball and a penalty try was rightly awarded. Full credit to the rather handsome referee Trevor Stribley for keeping up with play at the age of 83. Like a fine wine, he just gets better with age!

The second Roseland try followed quickly. Some brilliant running and quick ball meant Roseland went the length of the pitch before Burt Jacobs juggled the ball and dived over the line in the bottom corner.

The next try came from a Perranporth scrum on their own 5 metre line. The Roseland scrum forced back the beach boys and Starky dived on the ball to claim the try. Good vibrations!

The final try was another monsterous scrum from the big guns who walked the ball a good 20m before 5th choice captain Nathan Chapman scored. Why he couldn’t have done that last week instead of knocking the ball on God only knows!

Christian “least favourite son” Benbow who was still recovering from a broken nail on the sidelines, made the local papers as a hero when he saved a small child from being decapitated by the ball as it was kicked out of play, without spilling a drop of his pint.

Andy Harris who is also still injured (god our backs are soft) was again chief water boy. After lending his boots to Eamers two weeks ago he then had to lend them to Dickie this week after his boots disintegrated within 20 minutes. I think it’s time our older players bought their own boots now! Andy, now sporting some flip flops and cracking tan lines ran on the medical kit and dropped the whole lot on the floor, spilling contents everywhere much to the supporters amusement.

The beach boys from Perranporth rallied again near the end and were unlucky not to score. Both sloop John B and little saint Nick went close but we’re held out by some great defensive work from the Roseland boys.

A tired Jolene Hitchings then slotted a delicious penalty. Final score Roseland 27-5 Perranporth

Roseland travelled down to Helston with a strong squad, missing only a few key players. Helston had a similarly strong squad and on paper both teams looked to be well matched, having both dropped down to Cornwall Two this year and looking for promotion straight back to Cornwall One.

The game started slowly, with both teams sussing each other out. After 10 minutes Roseland began to dominate possession and territory but lacked a ruthless edge. Chances were wasted through poor decision making and handling mistakes but it was only a matter of time before one of the chances were taken.

Tommy Whiles (now sponsored by Jacamo) made some big tackles in defence and was happy to make it to 27 minutes before needing a sit down. New signing Alex “big boy” Benbow came on and immediately picked up from where Tommy left off, went full Chapman mode and dumped the first Helston player he hit. Mum Maggie could be heard shouting “thats my favourite son” from the sidelines.

Eventually the breakthrough came after another long period of sustained pressure. Roseland were camped on the Helston 5 metre line on the left hand side when the ball was passed inside to Joe Hitchins, who then popped the ball to Jojo Davidson who ran clean through to score. Hopefully it wouldn’t prove to be too little, too late for Jojo and co.

Roseland desperately needed another score and with 2 minutes left of the half Helston looked like they were going to be able to hold out until half time without conceding again. Luckily Roseland’s flying Fijian had other ideas. The ball was passed through the backs the entire width of the pitch before Kurt “the pebble” Johnson decided to try and balls it up by stepping back inside but Jale arrived late on his inside, screamed for the ball and powered through to score. Joe Hutchinson slotted the conversion beautifully. Half time Helston 0-12 Roseland

The second half couldn’t have started any worse for Roseland. Helston immediately scored and Roseland looked shook. Helston had the bit between their teeth and looked dangerous every time the ball went wide. They scored again and again and the Roseland heads started to drop. A series of injuries to Joe Hichings (knee), Jojo (shoulder), and Christian (broken nail) only served to disrupt any rhythm Roseland created. Captain Ant Thomas who was taken off as soon as possible had to come back on and Jale played on with a fractured wrist.

The gods seemed to be shining on Helston when even the brilliant Roseland scrum, which had pushed back the big navy boys all afternoon had a nightmare. The Helston pack was pushed back again but they somehow managed to hook the ball back and as their pack collapsed, their scrum half managed to get the ball out and beat the blindside winger one on one to score.

Tommy who was now back on the pitch as the Roseland fly half continued the age old Roseland tradition of not being able to fit in the 10 shirt. He did however provide a different kind of spark and his floated miss pass was simply sublime. Roseland scored a lovely forwards try from a driving maul off of a lineout. The ever reliable in the lineout Josh Little caught the ball and the ball made its way to the back for Harry “man mountain” Martin to score despite Tommy’s best efforts to come from fly half to take the glory. He then tried to convert the kick but it fell short.

Roseland then pushed again in the final stages. Tempers started to flare and as Helston attempted to slow the game down Toby politely reminded the Helston fullback that he couldn’t just lie in the ruck without making any effort to get out of the way. The Helston player was then sent off for his protests but they managed to hold on with 14 men. Final score Helston 25- 17 Roseland