TAMAR Saracens produced a strong finish to beat league rivals Plymouth Argaum 38-19 at Brickfields on Wednesday night to win the RNEC Cup.
There was only one score separating the two sides going into injury-time, but Sarries scored two impressive late converted tries to pick up some silverware in front of a decent-sized crowd at Plymouth Albion’s home ground.
Sarries did start strongly and had all the early pressure. Rob Hall missed a penalty kick after just three minutes, but he did kick one four minutes later to put his side in front.
But Argaum scored on their first real chance in Saracens’ 22, with veteran forward Bryan Milford forcing his way over following a tap penalty. Fly-half Luke McCreath added the conversion to edge Argaum 7-3 in front.
Saracens, though, responded well to going behind and within seven minutes they had regained the lead with a try from close range from prop Adam Coutts, which Hall converted to make it 10-7.
Hall missed another penalty on 28 minutes but almost instantly he was involved in winning a penalty try for his side after he kicked and chased, only to be stopped illegally close to the try line.
Argaum were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes following that incident, but they managed to hold out with a man less and could have even cut the gap, but they missed a penalty on the stroke of half-time.
However, immediately after the restart they did reduce the deficit when full-back Rory McCarthy finished off a fine move in the right corner.
Frazer Tatchell responded with a try in the right corner at the other end to put Sarries 24-12 ahead, but Argaum then had a good spell.
McCreath missed a penalty in the 60th minutes but after some intense pressure, centre Owen Goucher scored a converted try on the left to leave Argaum just five points behind with 14 minutes to play.
But Sarries still had plenty left in the tank and they turned on the style in the closing minutes.
Lew Swatton missed a penalty on 36 minutes, but in the first minute of injury-time, Greg Parrott finished off a great move in the right corner, made by a fine run by Robbie Fowler.
Swatton brilliantly converted that try from out wide before he scored a stunning effort himself to seal the match. He also added the conversion to cap Saracens’ night.
Tamar Saracens head coach Mike Lewis was delighted for the players that they were able to pick up some silverware after a tough league season.
“We were calm throughout, even when it went slightly wrong,” said Lewis. “We just collected ourselves and the boys stuck together.
“Our main focus for the game was to stay calm under pressure, but to be ruthless when we got the ball or in defence, and I thought we did that really well.
“There were a few mistakes, but it was a cup final and at the end of the day we just had to score more than them.”
He added: “We predicted the night before that it would be tight until about 10 or 15 minutes into the second half but then we felt we would pull away – and I think we did that.
“Those two tries at the end were brilliant. The last one was off the last play of the game and without any pressure we produced some intricate play and some good off-loads and luckily Lew Swatton had about a yard left of pace to get across the line. It was brilliant.”
Lewis felt winning a cup final was a great reward for his players.
“I reckon there was 500 people here and all the lads wanted the chance to play in a cup final under the lights and in front of the mates,” he said.
“It has been a hard season. We don’t have a youth section so we do have a slightly ageing squad who have families and work commitments and so they have to make a lot of sacrifices. The older players who have two or three kids have really pulled through for the whole season and there is that relief that we have got something tangible out of it.”
Argaum head coach Dean Avery said: “I think overall they (Saracens) deserved the win. We just didn’t do enough.
“I think we probably gave away 20 or 30 penalties over the game and they didn’t give many away.
“I was a bit frustrated we kind of ran the ball back into their big men rather than bouncing on the out and going wide.
“There were a lot of tackles that were high or that we fell off and if you miss tackles, they are going to score.
“At half-time we discussed keeping hold of the ball, going through some phases and bouncing on the out. And we did that in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but then we fell back again.
“But we did have a lot of people missing so it was positive, and I think both outfits had better teams out than we have seen on Saturdays.”
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