Roseland 14 – Bodmin 44
Second placed Bodmin arrived at Philleigh on Saturday afternoon having not played at Roseland for several seasons following their successful stint in the Cornwall and Devon League however they arrived on Saturday hopeful of another 5 point win and despite Roseland resilience they came away the victors.
The weather on Saturday was going to play a key part in this fixture. Although it didn’t rain during the game heavy rain during the night and into the morning meant the pitch was heavy underfoot and would cause difficult handling conditions and the wind was blowing straight down the pitch.
Before the game kicked off both sets of players and supporters observed a minutes silence in respect of Remembrance Day.
Roseland kicked the game off playing up the slope and against the wind. For much of the first half it was an even affair with Roseland, who had a slightly scratch side out, more than holding their own against a well drilled and organised side. Although Bodmin got into an early lead Roseland never gave up and earned a well deserved try after sustained pressure scored by hooker Martin Kneebone and excellently converted by fly half Matt Eddy.
At half time Bodmin lead 25-7 and Roseland certainly felt this was a game to be won.
However in the second half Roseland struggled to get any real field position and when they did the lineout was mis-firing, a result of the scratch side. Roseland did claw another 7 points back though when a lineout did go to plan and a rolling maul resulted in scrum half Tom Day peeling off to score with Eddy converting.
In the final 15 minutes Roseland lost 2 men to the sin bin, skipper Anthony Thomas and fly half Matt Eddy, at one point Roseland were down to 13 players. During this period Bodmin capitalised on their extra men and scored 19 unanswered points to bring the final score to 44-14. The score line flattered Bodmin though as Roseland dogged it out for the total 80 minutes and probably deserved to come away with at least a more respectable score line if not any league points.
Roseland travel the short distance to Penryn RFC on Saturday to play Camborne School of Mines.