Winscombe vs Penzance & Newlyn – Match Report

Pirates Fully Deserve Their Win

By Phil Westren

Winscombe 17 Penzance & Newlyn 39

Playing their opening Regional 2 South West game in 2026, the spirited Pirates won comfortably away to Winscombe.

The Cornish side had lost 28-15 to their Somerset opponents back at the Mennaye Field in October, so gaining revenge for that defeat, and considering their concerns at home following damage inflicted on their grandstand by ‘Storm Goretti’, proved pleasing.

Having first half advantage of the slope at Winscombe’s War Memorial Recreation Ground, the Pirates played with admirable control and led 12-nil at the break. As for the second half, further domination enabled to the team to score some good tries and record this bonus point achieving victory. The line-out had wobbled at times, but a strong scrum impressed, as did the running and kicking game.

Try scorers for the Pirates included the always determined Sam Carroll, who is normally a backrower but for this game featured in the centre, whilst other try-scorers were prop Ben Taylor, wing Jack Keogh, skipper Stan Somers, wing Callum Walsh, and full-back Sam Cahill. Fly-half Rhys Brownfield kicked three conversions and a penalty.

Commenting at the end of a game which saw the Pirates climb up to eighth in the league table, Pirates’ coach John Stevens said:

“Underpinned by lots of effort, this was a really good away performance, that delivered for us a fully deserved win on the road, which have been hard to come by so this season.

“We played well with the slope for the first 20 minutes and managed field position through good kicking from Rhys Brownfield and Sam Cahill, and although Winscombe to their credit, created periods of pressure, we defended manfully and managed to get to half time 12-nil up.

“The second half was always going to be tough up the slope, but with our scrum dominance it helped us gain both crucial field position and further opportunities to score to emerge comfortable winners.”

Winscombe:   15 Ollie Walrond 14 Harry Brean 13 Will Pearce 12 Sam Dearsley 11 Jim Rutherford 10 Dougie Ford 9 Jay Alvis; 1 Alec Chase 2 Simon Thompson 3 Adam Scrase 4 Aled Corcoran 5 Tom Hawkins 6 Tom Brown 7 Lewis Douglas 8 Ewan Griffith.

Replacements:   16 Frank Worle 17 Oscar Browne 18 Harley Walton.

Penzance & Newlyn:   15 Sam Cahill 14 Callum Walsh 13 Josh Semmens 12 Sam Carroll 11 Jack Keogh 10 Rhys Brownfield 9 Oscar Marr; 1 Ben Taylor 2 Wes Eddy 3 Dec Prowse 4 Ben Martin 5 Nick Nowell 6 Stan Somers (captain) 7 Tom Hutton 8 Jamie Eddy.

Replacements:   16 Joe Best 17 Tom Hocking.

Man of the match:   Josh Semmens.

📷Martyn Bodilly making the man of the match presentation to Josh Semmens

(The Pirates 2nds also played a fixture on Saturday, away to their counterparts at Falmouth. Emerging 78-0 winners, Piran Findlay was the chosen man of the match.)

📷Rhodri McAtee doing the honours by making the 2nd team man of the match presentation to Piran Findlay