LAUNCESTON joint head coach Ian Goldsmith admitted ‘it just wasn’t good enough’ after they slipped to a 29-19 defeat to Cornish rivals St Austell in Regional One South West on Saturday.

The visitors eased into a 22-5 at the break against the shell-shocked All Blacks, and when Peter Harris extended it further on the hour it was all but game over.

Number eight Brandon Rowley grabbed a late brace to make the scoreline somewhat more respectable, but Launceston had nothing to show for their efforts while St Austell headed back down the A30 with five points.

A frustrated Goldsmith told the Post: “It was definitely a deserved defeat and the really frustrating part was that the players knew it’d be St Austell’s cup final as we’d talked about it all week.

“It was a bit like Okehampton every year where they’d raise their game to play us and you’ve got to match that fire and intensity and we just didn’t cope with that.

“That allied to a number of self-inflicted mistakes was a recipe for coming second, and quite comfortably second in that particular game! It just wasn’t good enough.”

Ben Plummer’s double put the Saints 10-0 up and although George Hillson pulled one back, it was Archie Bees’ 50-metre run in that Goldsmith felt was the key moment.

He said: “We know they’re a good attacking team and they scored a couple of good tries, but the real killer for us was the third one.

“We had a couple of lineouts in the 22 which we fluffed, and then we lost the ball and their 15 has run in from halfway.

“That made the score 17-5 instead of 10-5 which is a good lead in those conditions and put St Austell’s tails up.

“Then they scored again just before the break and with that lead they could afford to defend more aggressively, and they defended it well.”

With a healthy crowd in attendance as they seeked to keep the pressure on Exmouth and Barnstaple at the top, Goldsmith felt they never got going.

He said: “There was no Fergie (in reference to legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson) hairdryer treatment as such at half-time, it was more of a chat about we’ve got ourselves in this mess, what are we going to do to get ourselves out of it and about putting it into action.

“We knew we needed a quick start and although we were a bit better, seven turnovers cost us.

“Then once they got the fifth try it was a mountain to climb.

“We got a couple of late tries but in front of a super Cornish derby crowd of nearly 700, St Austell rightly came out on top.”

Launceston were missing key trio Tom Sandercock, Lloyd Duke and Jose Luis Juarez, but Goldsmith had some encouragement for some.

He said: “There were a couple of positives. Ollie Bebbington on the wing was really good on his return, Leion (Cole) was good early on and Charlie Short was excellent in the second half, but overall it wasn’t good enough.”

The Cornishmen dropped below Brixham into fourth following the result and are now nine points adrift of leaders Exmouth with just one side going up.

However, while the Cockles have a two-point lead, it’s second-placed Barnstaple that many feel will take the title.

A trip into North Devon is Saturday’s assignment, and Goldsmith knows Barum are a tough proposition on home soil.

He said: “We know if we don’t respond accordingly in terms of performance we could be on the end on an embarrassing scoreline, but in some ways it’s the perfect game for us to have despite the fact they haven’t lost at Pottington Road for a couple of years.

“We’ve played well against them in recent games and done pretty well up there without quite getting the result.

“Last season both the cup and league game up there were close, so if we can perform like we can then we won’t be far off.

“But we also know we need to take every chance. That means the kicker has to have his kicking boots on, getting our defence bang on and every time we get into their 22, come away with points.”