LAUNCESTON joint head coach Ian Goldsmith admits they have gone ‘back to basics’ as they look to bounce back from their defeat to St Austell when they welcome Chew Valley to Polson Bridge on Saturday (3pm) in Regional One South West.

The All Blacks went down 29-19 to their Cornish rivals on November 30, while a week before that they needed an injury-time double from Brandon Rowley to see off mid-table Royal Wootton Bassett 29-28.

Launceston remain fourth in the table, but Goldsmith wants a response against their Somerset opponents, who recorded their first victory of the season on Saturday when they defeated Sidmouth.

That was one of only two games to be played due to Storm Darragh, with Launceston’s trip to promotion-chasing Barnstaple one of the casualties.

The Cornishmen would have travelled to North Devon with five first-choice starters missing, and Goldsmith admits it wasn’t the worst news.

He said: “In the circumstances with the squad we had it was probably a good thing for us, but on the other hand we’ll now have to go there on one of the free weekends – probably at the end of January, and you’re not quite sure whether people will have already made plans, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

“But the right decision was certainly made as you don’t want to jeopardise someone’s health in those conditions.”

Goldsmith wants a response after the last two outings.

He said: “We got away with a Houdini act against Royal Wootton Bassett and then didn’t show up against St Austell and deservedly came away with nothing.


“For us it’s about firstly putting on a better performance and then hopefully the win will follow.
We’ve gone back to basics in training and worked on a couple of things.

“One of those is game management and making sure we do the simple things right, particularly in the important areas of the pitch. And the second is ball retention. We had numerous turnovers and knock-ons against St Austell, and if you do that you’re going to struggle to stay in the game, yet alone go and win it.”

Chew Valley finished third last time out, but following a high turnover of players over the summer, the Somerset outfit have struggled, sitting last on ten points.

Launceston racked up the points in the return fixture on match-day two, winning 53-21 at Lobbingtons, but a crucial 27-26 success over third bottom Sidmouth on Saturday at least gives Chew a chance, and are now within two points of Ivybridge who were thrashed 65-5 by visiting Lydney.

Goldsmith expects a couple of players to return and wants his side to keep their focus on this weekend.

He said: “Hopefully, Mitch Hawken will be back from injury and Ben Bryant from uni, then it’ll be a case of waiting on Grav (Tom Sandercock), Lloyd (Duke) and Jose (Luis Juarez).

“Looking at their team from the weekend, they had a lot of guys we know about missing, but considering they got their first victory on the board, you’d think they’ll stay loyal to those guys, but we shall see!”

Launceston’s other senior sides are in action this weekend.

The seconds, who are joint top of Counties Three Cornwall alongside their Camborne counterparts, welcome fourth-placed Camborne School of Mines, while the ladies return to action when they head to Yeovil in Women’s NC 1 South West (West).

Both matches are due to get underway at 2.30pm.