Ross Tucknott: Cornwall, Sport & All Sorts

Redruth ensured that they returned home from their northern double-header with five league points with a dominant second-half performance over a Manchester side still looking for their first league points of the season.

Manchester were determined to play good rugby and demonstrate the huge improvements that their game has undergone from the darks days of the early season, thanks in no small part to their head coach Elaine Vassey. Any hopes of the hosts taking a surprise early lead were soon dashed, though, as quick passing along the back line enabled Lewis Vinnicombe a trademark dash into the corner for the first try of the game.

Aaron Penberthy narrowly missed the conversion from the touchline, but soon took the chance to make amends after on-loan Cornish Pirate Greg Goodfellow, brought in to help cover for the injured Mark Richards, scampered through the Manchester defence past a handful of tacklers to touch down between the posts.

Manchester then began to turn up the heat on the visitors, who started to incur the referee’s wrath with a number of penalties. Flanker Zak Hammond missed the first of them, whilst Penberthy showed him how to do it at the other end shortly afterwards. Another missed Manchester penalty followed soon after, but then a long period of sustained Manchester pressure along the Reds try line finally bore fruit when a penalty try was awarded after successive infringements.

The score spurred the Reds back into action, and six minutes later Penberthy slotted another penalty between the posts. Almost straight afterwards Redruth extended their lead further with a try involving nearly the entire team. The Reds pack expertly mauled their way into the Manchester 22, and when the ball was eventually passed out the backs executed a slick passing routine which let Vinnicombe dart across the line into the corner once again.

Manchester were refusing to lie down and die though, and the last ten minutes of the half saw most of the play coming from the home team. After another period of concerted pressure winger David Moore, who was highly influential for the northerners all game, ran around a poor defence for the hosts second try, with the whistle being blown immediately after the successful conversion for Redruth to take a nine-point lead into the break.

Hopes for an epic upset evaporated only 6 minutes into the second half as joint Man of the Match Goodfellow, who dazzled onlookers all game with his quick pace and ability to jink from space to space, burst through the Manchester line and sprinted from the ten-metre line to touch down between the posts, giving Penberthy another easy conversion.

Adryan Winnan, playing his first full eighty minutes of competitive rugby this season, had been running balls back into the Manchester lines all day, and persistence paid off when he broke through the defence with forty metres of space left to run into. Drawing the last man, he passed out to Chris Fuca in support who spun the ball out to Vinnicombe to complete his hat-trick and take the top spot in the league’s try scorers’ table.

From there on Redruth never looked back, taking the game by the scruff of the neck with some outstanding forward play. Persistent pressure saw Mark Bright rewarded with his ninth try from eleven games, brushing his way past a couple of tackles to finish between the uprights. Aaron Penberthy scored his last points of the game by converting afterwards.

Joint Man of the Match Peter Joyce had been in fine form all game, relishing every tackle, and a great display from him was rewarded with yet another score. The match then finished on a high for Tom Cowan Dickie, scoring in the corner in the last play of the game, leaving the team – and the merry coach-load of supporters who had enjoyed the long weekend away – to return across the Tamar with more points in the bag and another crucial home match against struggling Cinderford in a fortnight’s time.