Tribute Western Counties (West)

St Austell 0

KINGSBRIDGE returned to High House for their first home league match of the season on Saturday after their opening day victory away at Saltash. The visitors were St Austell, who had been relegated from South West One at the end of last season.

Kingsbridge began by far the stronger of the two sides as they exerted early pressure within the St Austell 22. The visitors gave away a penalty in the seventh minute, which was converted by home winger George Banfield for a 3-0 lead.

The visitors missed a penalty of their own four minutes later that would have levelled the scores, and immediately from the restart Kingsbridge made them pay by extending their lead. After gaining possession from the drop-out, breaks from home hooker Charlie Brooking and new signing Tom Meatyard saw the ball moved out to captain and centre Ben Glover, who crossed over wide out for the first try to take the score to 8-0.

On 29 minutes the hosts extended their lead still further as good work by the forwards saw flanker Matt Allen put clear along the bottom touchline from outside the St Austell 22; he rounded the covering defenders before scoring behind the posts. Banfield’s successful conversion saw Kingsbridge lead 15-0 and that remained the score until half-time.

The opening 20 minutes of the second half saw no further addition to the score. Kingsbridge defended resolutely when their line was threatened and the home forwards continued to dominate in the set pieces. The visiting pack had no real luck in the scrum as the Kingsbridge eight proved too much of a handful.

On 25 minutes of the second half Kingsbridge crossed over for their third try. A scrum on the St Austell 22 saw scrum half Billy Burner elect to move the ball on the narrower blind side, and when he found winger Joe Banfield in support the visitors’ defence was left grasping at thin air. The try in the corner saw the home lead move out to 20-0.

Only five minutes later and the home side were back in the visitors’ 22. A strong 50-yard break from centre Alex Allen set up a ruck, where the ball was quickly moved to number eight Jack Cope and then lock Jake Knight, who powered over from 10 yards with the St Austell defence in retreat to gain the bonus point score. The conversion from Banfield extended the lead to 27-0.

Kingsbridge were not done, however, as they added a fifth try with barely four minutes of the match remaining. A ­period of forward pressure in the St Austell 22 saw the ball moved out to the backs for fly half Ben Newman to find a gap in the defence to touch down. Banfield was again on target with the conversion to take the score to 34-0.

This was a thoroughly professional job from the Blue and Whites.

Pizza Planet man of the match was Matt Allen.

Scorers: Ben Glover one try, Matt Allen one try, Joe Banfield one try, Jake Knight one try, Ben Newman one try, George Banfield three conversions and one penalty.

This Saturday sees the first XV travel to Sidmouth in the league and the A XV host Plymouth Argaum IIs at High House at 3pm. Kingsbridge Colts ­welcome Plymstock Colts for a 2.30pm kick-off on the Longfield pitch.