By Frank Stormont
October 24 2006

A hard match with 5 yellows mean that Wariors did not come away with a win. The match seemed towards the end to resemble table tennis with points backwards and forwards.  

Launceston II 21 Westcountry Warriors 17

The match very much started the way other recent derby matches have, with a catch and drive to the Warriors that gave Jake Childs the try at the back of a catch and drive move within the first 3 minutes. Launceston decided that they were not going to roll over and they came back for a forwards try at the other end before 10 minutes were up. Neither try was converted.

On 15 minutes after a catch and drive was stopped by Launceston 12 metres out from their own line Warriors were awarded a penalty which Dave Delaney scored 3 points from.  With yellow cards being dished out like invitations to a wedding Tim Mathias got his first on 24 minutes for not rolling away at a ruck.  Gareth Evans replaced Ed King to maintain the front row in the absence of Tim.

Launceston failed to take advantage of the extra man on the pitch although they did have a penalty opportunity which went to the right of the posts.  Just after Warriors were returned to full strength  an attack by Launceston was initially stopped by Matt Newman but when the pack formed Launceston pushed their way across the line. With conversion made Launceston were in the lead for the first time in the match.

At the turn around Launceston stayed on the pitch and the Warriors and officials retired to their dressing rooms.  James Owen did not return to the pitch and was replaced by Graham Dawe who had been warming up for the last 15 minutes of the first half after James had gone down with an ankle injury. Graham did not have to wait long to touch the ball as the Launceston restart went straight to him and he quickly passed back.

Chris Lowrie assumed the role of captain something he was use to last season but spending more time with the first team he has not had much of an opportunity to take on the role this season.

On 45 minutes a scrum collapsing in front of the Warriors posts gave the ref the opportunity to gift Launceston 3 points which took the score to 15-8.

The second half of the match was far more physical and after 13 minutes and a number of stoppages the referee called the two captains aside telling them to get their teams to be less physical. An opportunity to close the gap was not taken when Dave Delaney's kick from the half way line went to the right of the posts. On twenty minutes Dave successfully narrowed the gap with a penalty kick bringing Warriors to within 4 points.

With what seemed like a high tackle on Graham and resulting play a yellow cards were issued to Graham and a Launceston forward, a further yellow card was issued after consultation with the touch judge presumably for an offence that happened slightly earlier when Tom Arscott was held back after kicking forward into the Launceston half. The result of all the yellows was a penalty which Dave Delaney took to bring Warriors within one point.

With a man up Warriors should have took the advantage but it went against them and Launceston dropped a goal in Warriors 22 to widen the gap to 4 points again. Another penalty gave Dave 3 more points to bring the score to 18-17. With Graham off the pitch and James Owen unavailable Gareth Evens came on as loose head with Tim moving to tight head and Mike Hayes taking on the role of hooker.

With less than 10 minutes left and before either side had returned to full strength Warriors were reduced to 13 men when Brett Stroud was sin binned for an offence at a ruck. The final score came from yet another penalty and the match finished with a win to Launceston 21-17.

A disappointing match for Warriors although it had been a busy weekend with many of the team in the set up against Barnstaple on Saturday.  The ball was wet and slippery as was the pitch. Although the rain did not come down much whilst the players were on the pitch the body steam seemed to hang in the air after a ruck or maul.

Matches where most of the points come from the penalty kick are not always as exciting or fulfilling as matches where the points are scored by going over the whitewash. At the end of the day it is a win to Launceston and a loss to Warriors.  This is the first loss that Warriors have had in the Tamar Shield this season and the players will be hoping that it is the last.