St Austell Colts 26 Thornbury Development XV 8

THORNBURY were knocked out of the National U-18 Cup by an older and well-drilled St Austell side, who now progress into the quarter finals of the prestigious competition.

Although Thornbury selected a strong side they were missing a number of leading players, and the side never recovered from losing two players to injury in the first ten minutes.

St Austell opened the scoring with a converted try before adding a second midway through the half to open a 12-0 lead. Thornbury twice broke through and were clear but called back for forward passes. Jake Wood kicked a penalty and Thornbury trailed 12-3 at the break.

The deficit was increased early in the second half when St Austell scored a converted try and with the St Austell forwards on top a fourth try was scored which with the conversion extended the lead to 26-3. Finn Hitchcock scored a consolation try for Thornbury late on but Thornbury were unable to overcome the more powerful Cornish side.

The Thornbury players should be proud of their efforts and although well-beaten they had lost to a fine side which were mainly 18-year olds, effectively a year older than Thorns. With the core of this team in only the first of their two years as a development XV player there is no reason why Thornbury cannot reach this level and potentially go further next season.

Meanwhile, former Thornbury Ladies player Rhiannon Parker made her international debut in the Wales Women side that played Scotland at Cumbernauld last weekend.

Rhiannon, daughter of Thornbury RFC stalwart and life member Annie, currently plays scrum-half for Cardiff Blues Ladies and was selected to start. Although she had played for Wales against Ireland previously that was a friendly and a non-capped match.

Rhiannon played Mini and Junior rugby at Thornbury before playing senior club rugby for, amongst others, Worcester.

Rhiannon had a fine game and was substituted on the hour. Scotland won 15-14.