Falmouth were defeated 33-16 at home by fellow Cornish side Wadebridge Camels at the weekend in a very hotly contested fixture.
Falmouth started extremely well and were 9-7 in the lead after three Justyn Iron’s penalties just before half time.
But late tries in both the first and second halves of the match meant that Wadebridge came away with victory and gain distance to the top of the table.
Director of rugby Graham Whitmore said: “It was another frustrating game but loads of positives coming from it.
“With ten minutes to go and three points difference and with the momentum with us things could have been very different.”
The game started slowly, and it wasn’t until the 15th minute that wither side broke the deadlock after Iron’s superb kick from near the hallway line made it 3-0 to the home side.
But Wadebridge reacted well with a try only three minutes later when Matt Ballard broke the Eagles line and offloaded superbly to Will Pengelly who scored just under the posts, before Danny Thomas converted to make it 7-3.
Falmouth clawed another three points back in the 21st minute before a high tackle lead to another Irons converted penalty meaning Falmouth regained the lead at 9-7 with 10 minutes of the first half remaining.
But the lead didn’t last long when Wadebridge scored their second try of the game after a well collected lineout and driving mail pushed the away side over the line in the 39th minute. Thomas this time could not convert making the scores 12-9 going into the break.
Only four minutes after half-time and Wadebridge had their third of the game, this time it was Pengelly with the assist after he broke through the Falmouth defence and passed to the onrushing number 12 Joe Pretty who scored and Thomas converted the try taking the score to 19-9.
The 56th minute saw the Wadebridge second row sent to the bin, and Falmouth took full advantage and scored their first try of the game through Anthony Geach who made it 16-19.
After returning to 15 men the impact from Wadebridge was almost instant when Jake Grubb kicked through and beat Matthew Brewer to the ball to slide in for the away side’s 4th try of the match at 26-19.
And Wadebridge killed the game off two minutes later in the 74th minute after Pretty collected a pass from Pengelly to secure his second try of the game and Thomas converted which meant the fixture ended 33-16 to the away side.
