XGirl Cup report by Ross Tucknott
At the third round of the XGirl Cup, draft headlines such as “New Highest Attendance For Cornish Girls Rugby” or “Redruth Join The Girls Rugby Party” found themselves crumpled and thrown in the metaphorical waste paper bin. The home team had simply decided to write a whole new script as the Camborne U15s leapt up the table after going undefeated across the afternoon’s fixtures.
Not that those other headlines didn’t happen. Almost 200 girls turned up to play XRugby at the Rec, with the U13s hitting another first by being the first age group fielding 8 separate teams in the competition. Redruth joined in with the Cornish girls rugby programme for the first time too, having incubated a brand new and proficient U13s squad over the first half of the season and rightly felt their players were ready to take the step into competitive games. Plus the high attendance isn’t likely to stand for long either, with Wadebridge set to join in in the very near future too.
However, the main story of the day was definitely the performance of the Camborne U15s on home turf, ripping up the form book with an impressive brand of bruising defence and strong breakdown pressure.
Their opening 14-7 win against table-toppers Newquay & Perranporth – the first loss for the north coasters in any format all season – was not as close as the scoreline would suggest, with the losing bonus point only conceded in the last play of the game. Three more tries were enough to see off a creditable effort from Truro before inflicting an uncharacteristic 28-0 loss upon Launceston/St Austell/Penzance. The final match of their afternoon saw the home side fight their way to an impressive 17-5 win against second place Bude, hurtling Camborne up 3 places in the league table.
Meanwhile on the U13s pitches, Camborne were also the only side to match Redruth’s fine debut performances. Redruth’s fine recruitment efforts gave them the numbers to split into two squads, and all three of the teams from Cornish rugby’s heartland won three out of their four matches. Bude & Camborne were the only teams to spoil the debuts, with Camborne’s own clean sweep denied in turn by Perranporth. Liskeard finished the strongest, improving every round and putting a whopping seven tries past Redruth but yet still falling just short!
Finally, with injuries and Covid affecting key personnel for all the U18s squads, and with them all having missed out on 15-a-side rugby for longer than the younger age groups, the XRugby 10s programme was put on hold in favour of a standard rugby fixture, with Truro overcoming their combined opponents 42-24.
County Trials:
Updated county nomination and permission forms for the forthcoming trails are available on the CRFU website for the U18s trials (starting Feb 6th) and the U15s trials too (starting Feb 20th). Coaches and team managers have already received and circulated them, but anyone wishing to trial can also grab a copy from here too!
Full Results
U18s
Truro 42-24 Launceston & Belerions
U15s
Newquay & Perranporth 17 – 12 Bude
St Austell/Launceston/Penzance 31 – 21 Truro
Camborne 14 – 7 Newquay & Perranporth
Bude 19 – 7 St Austell/Launceston/Penzance
Truro 7 – 19 Camborne
Newquay & Perranporth 28 – 14 St Austell/Launceston/Penzance
Truro 7 – 26 Bude
Camborne 28 – 0 St Austell/Launceston/Penzance
Newquay & Perranporth 56 – 28 Truro
Bude 5 – 17 Camborne
U13s
Perranporth 28 – 41 Bude
Redruth A 24 – 47 Camborne
Truro/St Austell 12 – 24 Redruth B
Liskeard 15 – 53 Launceston
Perranporth 52 – 35 Camborne
Redruth A 27 – 12 Bude
Liskeard 10 – 36 Redruth B
Truro/St Austell 19 – 50 Launceston
Perranporth 21 – 28 Redruth A
Bude 21 – 38 Camborne
Truro/St Austell 33 – 22 Liskeard
Redruth B 29 – 7 Launceston
Perranporth 43 – 7 Truro/St Austell
Bude 31 – 10 Redruth B
Redruth A 54 – 37 Liskeard
Camborne 52 – 14 Launceston
