DEVON won back the Tamar Cup as they narrowly beat a Cornwall XV 26-20 at Plymouth Albion’s Brickfields ground on Saturday.
Devonport Services’ Tom Davies and Charlie Groves were among Devon’s try scorers in a competitive game that went right down to the wire.
Devon, playing with the wind first half, had been 19-5 up at the break, but Cornwall came back and were pressing at the end for a late winner.
Both counties agreed again to only select players from level five and below for the warm-up fixture, which are the rules in the County Championship division Devon play in.
Cornwall, who play in the top division, will have all their Camborne and Redruth players to come into the squad for their championship campaign, as well as St Austell’s Matt Shepherd, who missed Saturday’s match due to injury.
The Duchy team on Saturday was prominently made up of players from Launceston, St Austell and level six side Penzance-Newlyn, while Devon’s side pulled heavily from new Regional One South West champions Devonport Services and third-placed Brixham.
Services were represented by Davies, Groves, Oli Symons, Mike Rickard, Bertie Fordham and Liam Jarvis, while Ivybridge players Adam Lilley and James Cantin were on the bench.
Saltash’s Ryan Cruickshanks had been due to be among Cornwall’s replacements, but he was another player that had to pull out. However, Cornwall did include former Tavistock and Devon scrum-half George Hillson in their side.
In front of a good-sized crowd, Cornwall started well and Penzance number eight Stan Sommers came close to opening the scoring with a well-timed run, but he was just stopped short.
The Duchy were then held up over the line from a catch-and-drive move.
But Devon gradually got going and powerful prop Symons looked like he was going to score in the 15th minute, but a Cornwall player somehow managed to get his hands under the ball to stop him grounding it.
The Duchy were reduced to 14 men in the 18th minute for what the referee deemed a deliberate knock-on and within seconds, Devon took advantage when they went wide from a scrum and Davies was there to score in the right corner.
The visitors did pull level in the 27th minute with a fine try by Launceston winger Ollie Bebbington.
But Devon finished the half strongly and scored two unanswered tries.
First, Brixham scrum-half Jamie Hext was ruled to have grounded the ball over a couple of bodies under the posts in the 35th minute and his club colleague Mitch Pinkus added the conversion.
The impressive Pinkus then scored a fine individual try, which he also converted, in first half injury-time.
The strong wind did die down in the second half and Devon almost scored a stunning try from their own 22 in the opening minutes, but they just dropped the ball with the final pass when the try-line was at their mercy.
And Cornwall did cut the gap when Launceston fly-half James Tucker reacted quickly to a dropped ball in Devon’s half. He won the race to get to it and he kicked it forward before gathering it and holding off Jarvis to score. He also added the conversion to make it 19-12.
Tucker then kicked a penalty five minutes later to make it 19-15.
At this point Cornwall had their tails up, but Devon gathered themselves and had some intense pressure on the Duchy line. The visitors defended well for a long spell but eventually Devon’s pressure told and Groves went over on the right and Pinkus added the conversion.
But Cornwall did not give up and they came back with another good try by Bebbington down the right wing.
Tucker was unable to add the tough conversion, but the Duchy really upped their pace in the final few minutes to try and snatch a winner.
However, Devon held them out to win back the Tamar Cup, which they had won at Ivybridge in 2024 before losing it last year at Redruth.
All pictures are low resolution and are protected by copyright so should not be used without permission.