All Blacks take first honours in battle of Cornish rugby

Launceston's Cornish All Blacks took the spoils in today's first Cornish derby as they thrashed Redruth 40-15 at Polson Bridge.

It was a hugely one sided match with the All Blacks holding the edge in every division of the game. Redruth had three players sin-binned in the first period and gave away two breakaway tries which effectively sealed the win for the hosts.

Man of the match was clearly Ryan Westren who scored a hat-trick. Other tries came from Richard Bright on his home debut and replacement winger Kieron Lewitt (pictured).

And AFC Wimbledon won to stay top of the Conference.

A stadium for Cornwall

The BBC is carrying news today that Cornwall Council is paying £78,000 to consultants assessing the viability for a stadium for Cornwall. Needless to say, that's a lot of money. I'd be interested to hear the views of people in Launceston about what they think that such a facility could do for us.

The current incarnation of the project would see a facility that could be used for football, rugby and for various indoor sports. It would also be able to host music and other events. Following concerns about it becoming a white elephant, the current plans would see capacity of about 4,500 for sporting events and up to 10,000 for music. Whilst I certainly don't think that we can justify building a 20,000 seater football or rugby stadium, we do need to consider whether these are the right numbers.

Whilst all political parties in Cornwall support the broad outline of the stadium plan, I believe that there are four concerns that need to be addressed:

- In the light of the Wembley pitch fiasco, we need to decide what such a stadium should be for. Could Truro City and the Pirates happily share a stadium without it being to the detriment of either. Is it realistic to expect large scale concerts to be held there and, if so, would they harm the sports teams?

- Would the venue see enough use to justify building it? A decent venue needs to be used to something approaching capacity on a regular basis. A ground share between the Pirates and Truro City would certainly meet the frequency criteria, but do either or both have the marketing plan to build crowds?

- What will the ultimate cost be to the Council? Should the people of Cornwall be putting up the money for this stadium and over what timescale will they be paid back? It's one thing giving some money to get a project off the ground, or even paying up front in the expectation of being paid back over time. But why should the Council subsidise the Pirates and/or Truro City and not Redruth or the All Blacks, Falmouth Town or Newquay Hornets?

- Finally, if this is a stadium for Cornwall, there must be some demonstration that there will be genuine benefit for the whole of Cornwall. Being the shape that we are, not everyone will benefit to the same extent, but this cannot be for Cornwall in name only.

I'd welcome the thoughts of readers.

All Blacks win Battle of Cornwall (part 2)

I haven't been posting much about rugby this season but thought it would be apt to report on today's fantastic win for the All Blacks at Redruth (in part because it will annoy my brother, a Reds fan).

Back in September, Launceston beat the Reds in their first home match of the season despite a last gasp rally by the visitors. It was a shame that such a big match was so early in the season, but it was great to win.

This time, Nigel Hambly and his team seemed to think that they could get the better of the All Blacks. And for most of the game it looked likely that they would. They scored the only try of a very scrappy match - ironically when they were down to 14 men. That came about because of a mistake - Ed Lewsey chose the wrong option in kicking ahead. The kick was charged down and Mark Richards scored. That was the Reds' only score of the match though and whilst they threatened several times they failed to capitalise.

For the All Blacks, the normally rock solid boot of Tony Yapp fluttered - perhaps Yapp had the yips? He missed two penalties, one with a horrible shank. He also missed an attempted drop goal with ten minutes to play and the All Blacks a point behind. But, crucially, he also kicked two penalties and an injury time drop goal to give the All Blacks a 9-7 victory.

Launceston are now third in the table.