LAUNCESTON joint head coach Ian Goldsmith admitted ‘the better side won’ as their promotion hopes from Regional One South West took a big blow with a 40-7 thrashing at second-placed Barnstaple on Saturday.

After an encouraging opening it appeared it’d be a close contest in front of a large Pottington Road crowd, but once the hosts led 26-7 at the break it was all but game over.

Further tries after the break from man of the match Matt Gohl and Cameron Grizzle-Johnson added to the All Blacks’ woes as they slipped 12 points behind leaders Brixham, albeit with a game in-hand.

Speaking shortly after full-time, Goldsmith said: “The scoreline doesn’t lie in that most times they got into our 22 they came away with something and that shows the value of being clinical.

“They also sustained pressure much better than us and played really well.

“When you go away from home and get into their 22 you’ve got to come away with points and we didn’t do it often enough.”

Barnstaple’s side was noticeably bigger and Goldsmith admitted it showed.

He said: “We also spoke beforehand about getting our tackling heights right and we didn’t seem to.

“They’re a fair bit bigger than us and by the law of averages the big men usually bully the smaller men and they did it superbly.”

With a 19-point deficit to overturn, what was said at the break?

He said: “At half-time the chat was to stop being so sloppy with the ball and keep it better.

“The damage was already probably done and we knew we probably needed to score within the first five to seven minutes to make it a bit more interesting, but it didn’t happen.

“Against good teams if you don’t solve those problems they’ll punish you on that, and they did it.”

Defeat for either team would have meant a real struggle to catch leaders Brixham, but it was Barum who moved to within two points of the Fishermen.

Goldsmith said: ““Both coaching teams said during the week that the winners of this game will put some heat on Brixham, and the other will all be but be out of contention, and unfortunately that’s us.

“You can have an off day and might be able to scrape past one of the lower teams in the table at home, but it’s not going to happen at a place like Barnstaple, and it showed.

“They were superb today and thoroughly deserved their win!”

Goldsmith did find the odd positive, including the return from injury of Jose Luis Juarez from his ankle injury suffered at Sidmouth in November.

He continued: “We had two or three decent individual performances in Grav (Tom Sandercock), Tucks (James Tucker) and Ollie Bebbington, and it was great to see Jose back out there.

“He trained fully on Thursday and with Leion’s (Cole) shoulder playing up we took a bit of a punt.

“It was great for him to get 40 minutes under his belt, and hopefully after that and another week of training under his belt, he’ll be ready for Matson.”

Launceston head to Gloucester on Saturday to tackle a Matson side who are difficult customers on their own patch and have two former Premiership props in Shaun Knight and George Porter to contend with.

Goldsmith said: “Their front row will certainly put us under some heat so that’ll be a test of ticker and character and also we need to make sure we don’t put on a repeat of today’s showing.

“Their captain (Connor) Gwilliam is also a good footballer, but they’ll try and bully us.

“For us it’s about making sure when we get into their 22 we come away with points and stay there for longer.

“Three times today we failed to find touch with a penalty, so there’s plenty to work on.”