On Saturday Roseland entertained St Agnes in a “friendly” match that both sides needed before the respective league seasons start. It was also Roseland’s now famous “Ladies Day” so the boys knew they had to put in a performance.
St Agnes, who now ply their trade in Cornwall One, turned up with a bare 15 but with the knowledge that in the recent history of matches between the two clubs they held the upper hand on victories, still felt confident of securing victory. Roseland on the other hand were “flush” with players with at least 4 replacements available.

Having lost a hard fought game v St Austell 2nds a fortnight ago Roseland were hoping to regain some momentum with their league season kicking off in 2 weeks’ time.

In glorious sunshine and with a slight breeze blowing up the field St Agnes kicked off playing down the slope. Both teams threw the kitchen sink at each other early on trying to find weaknesses. Roseland defended stoutly to keep the big “Aggie” runners at bay. Roseland also attacked well when they had ball in hand with some clever kicks behind the defence and some strong direct running.

Roseland were unlucky not to score mid way through the half when after a clever interception on his own 22 No8 Nathan Chapman made a lung bursting run to half way before off loading to Sam Glanville who made more metres before passing to Starky who before managing to pass wide to Matt “Eddie” Eddie who had his arm snagged by a clever tackle from the Aggie cover defence and the ball was knocked on.

It took until about 30 minutes into the first half for the first score to materialise. A St Agnes clearance kick was charged down and gave Aggie a dangerous line out 5 metres out from their own line. This was scored by Roseland skipper Starky picking off an Aggie overthrow at the line out, he gathered the ball and gratefully crashed over the line. Dave “Davo” Williams missed with the conversion.

St Agnes responded almost immediately with a try of their own after some missed tackles in midfield and despite an heroic last ditch tackle by full back Matt Eddie, Aggie managed to offload and score. The resultant conversion was missed.

Half time shortly followed and the scores were locked at 5-5 and the second half promised to be as intriguing and tight as the first.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first with strong defence and enterprising attacks by both sides cancelling each other out and throw in the odd handling error led to a finely poised game.

Roseland gained a penalty just inside the Aggie half and opted to kick for the corner. The kick got Roseland into the St Agnes 22. A solid catch and drive line out, with some backs adding their considerable bulk, resulted in a well worked first try for new boy hooker Martin. Matt Eddie was unlucky in hitting the post with his conversion attempt.
St Agnes came back strongly but Roseland resisted well, and the use of their bench with fresh legs started to take effect, and eventually working the ball down field, and after several attempts at crossing the Aggie line the ball was worked wide for quick man and fly half Davo Williams to bundle his way over the whitewash. Davo missed the conversion.

St Agnes were now chasing the game and lost a player to a nasty injury so Roseland lent them speedster Mike Berridge. Who it must be said made a scything break through the middle of the park and left several players for dead.
St Agnes kept battling until the end and but for some stern Roseland defence may of snuck another score however it was Roseland’s day and they came away winners 15-5 after a hard fought match.

A special mention should go to Roseland assistant coach Chris Brown who did a stirling job as referee, in his first outing as a ref, and done a fine job for both sides.

Roseland travel to Perranporth on Saturday for a final “friendly” before the league rugby kicks off.
It’s a 2:30pm kick off.