Hornets kept their promotion hopes alive with a comfortable 45-12 victory over Cullompton.

Hornets 45 pts

Cullompton 11 pts

HORNETS visited the impressive Cullompton ground and came away with a comfortable 45-11 victory to keep up their promotion push.

Cullompton started strongly and took a 3-0 lead through a penalty. Hornets hit back when Disney switched the attack and Letherby found Jones bursting through a gap and he offloaded to Jack Gadd, who strode over for Hornets’ opening try. Jones converted for a 7-3 lead.

Cullompton forced a number of penalties, one of which was converted. Cornish pounced on a loose ball and broke free. He found Jack Gadd in space and he made good ground.

The attack broke down but Hornets won a penalty, which Disney took quickly but was illegally stopped resulting in a yellow card for the Cullompton fly-half.

Letherby put the penalty to touch and the line-out was won cleanly. Chase, Cheeseborough made good ground before recycling the ball to the backs. Jack Gadd broke the line and passed to brother Joe, who cleverly offloaded to release Jones to touch down in the corner to give Hornets a 12-6 half-time lead.

After the break, Hornets blitzed their opposition in 15 minutes of rugby resulting in four tries.

Cornish was first to add to the score with a typically jinking run. The next was touched down by Jones after good work by Francis. Good work by Hogarth, the Gadd brothers set up Balkham to sprint to the line, Jones converting twice.

Good breaks by Harris and Chase took Hornets close to the Cullompton line, but the home side won a penalty. Disney infringed and was yellow carded, before Cullompton also had a man yellow carded.

Hornets’ pack formed an unstoppable maul which surged over the try line, allowing Chase to score. This time Letherby added the extras to make the score 38-6.

The game then got messy and with tempers flaring, Cullompton losing another man to a yellow card and Hornets suffered the loss of Haines to a red card.

Cullompton added a consolation try before Cornish picked up a loose ball on Hornets’ goal-line and passed to Balkham, who sprinted the length of the pitch to touch down under the posts. Letherby converted for a final score of 45-11.

The final whistle followed and Hornets had registered another impressive win to consolidate their position at the top of the league.

With St Austell losing again, the chasing pack of Cleve, Camborne and Chard still pose a threat to Hornets promotion push. The crunch match comes this week with third placed Cleve visiting The Nest for a match that could determine the outcome of the league.

South West One top five

W D L Pts

Hornets 19 0 4 90

St Austell 16 3 6 86

Cleve 17 1 6 83

Chard 17 0 6 83

Camborne 16 2 6 83

Hornets 2nd XV 45 pts

Bridgwater & Albion 17 pts

THE seconds completed a double over Bridgwater & Albion with a seven-try home victory.

Fielding a side with the experience of Hedges, Sheridan and Speller, complemented with no less than 10 colts.

Owens crossed for the first of his hat-trick when the ball was spun out wide. Colborne was next to score with a jinking run, converted by Owens. The next try was all about the forwards as Speller took clean ball at the line-out from Ward, the shove came on for Hedges to dot down, Owens obliged again with the kick.

From the restart, Owens scored a superb long-range solo effort, but Bridgwater scored either side of half-time to close the gap to 24-12.

Colborne found space again to touch down and added the extras himself and Adam Francis was next to score and convert. Owens finished the scoring, converted by Colborne, but Bridgwater ended with a consolation try.

Sound work from the young front five players Reisiegh, Ward, Whatley, Jackson, Howe and Brake set the tone for the afternoon, while Xahn and Sheridan on the wings put in some great runs.