1st XV match reports

National League Three South

Mount's Bay 20 London Scottish 5

LEE JARVIS was never quite good enough to sustain a long career at the very highest level, and though he did play European Cup rugby for several seasons, his one appearance for Wales was as a substitute against Romania ten years ago.

But the 31-year-old stand-off is the stand-out player in this league. His tally of 128 points in eight games is more than half as much again as his nearest challenger. Without him Mount’s Bay would surely not be the force they are.

Against London Scottish, Jarvis showed his ability to control the game from a deep position. Perhaps the Cornish side took their lead from the way the world cup final was won, because on a foul day with a greasy ball, they chose not to make the play, but to invite Scottish to come at them and wait for the errors. When they came, Scottish were severely punished.

Yet on the eight-hour train-bus-train journey home, the visitors will have reflected on the amount of possession they had, both through a dominant scrum and an effective rucking game. If Canterbury, though, was a game Scottish should have won, this was no more than “could have” won. A 0-3 deficit into the second half suggested matters were more even than perhaps they really were. And when it came to converting chances, Scottish made a hash of several good positions, while Bay had three clear chances and ruthlessly turned two of them into tries.

Scottish had travelled to Penzance the night before. By lunchtime a dull day had turned dreich, with just enough wimd to blow the rain into the home side’s faces in the first half, though this far south the air was 20^o warmer than would be similar conditions in Scotland!

Despite the conditions, this was a surprisingly good game overall. The greasy ball was problematic for both sides, but crucially, while Bay made their errors mainly in harmless places, the Scots let the ball slip away in critical areas at both ends.

Indeed Scottish should have taken an early lead. After a spell in defence, the visitors established camp in the home 22 without making further progress, but first Stuart Peel tried a drop goal only to have the kick charged down, then when Jarvis was penalised for not rolling away, Duncan Hayward missed a 30m penalty from more or less in front.

Then a massive Jarvis clearance was returned on the wind by Greenslade-Jones. Scottish stole the home lineout but then lost the opportunity to a turnover. Mount’s Bay, having had to reorganise the side when Australian import Mosey pulled a hamstring in the warm-up, were happy to have survived the pressure unscathed.

Bay really hadn’t threatened much thus far, but in the 22^nd minute sloppy defending handed them a lineout on the Scots 5m line. A solid defensive effort kept the home side out.

Then Jarvis showed the value of a 80%-plus goal-kicker. Scottish were penalised for not rolling away just inside their own half. Jarvis popped the tee down a couple of yards nearer the posts but he had no need to – his kick cleared the cross bar by a good ten metres for 3-0.

Jarvis then tried to set up Harriss, one of two very quick young wingers in the home side, with a cross kick to the corner but Greenslade-Jones, who played alongside Jarvis at Pontypridd in 1999-2000, anticipated and got their first.

Then Scottish again offended at the tackle area to give Jarvis a second long-range chance but this time he pulled the kick wide.

Scottish opened the second half with Lee Cholewa on at stand-off and winger Ross Yiend off, with Peel and Greenslade-Jones shuffling along the line. Jarvis looked for and found a gap in the new defensive line: from a scrum on the 22m line over on the left, Jarvis cut across the front of goal to send winger Edyvean in to score. Jarvis duly converted and 10-0 looked a daunting lead.

It was soon almost even greater. Peel and Cholewa organised a clever break-out, but when the ball was lost on the Bay 22, Jarvis hoofed it right back where it came from, and subsequently Bay put together a neat backline move to gain a 3 on 1 advantage only for what should have been to scoring pass go astray and sail into touch.

Then another good Scottish spell was undone when Mr Gardner penalised the visitors for not releasing 10m from the Bay try-line. Jarvis didn’t look for touch but sent the ball fully 80m into Scots territory, where it was knocked on…

Eventually, Bay established position where, from a ruck, Pellow’s long pass found Jarvis poised for the drop goal. Player-coach Pellow has a good career record too, including a European Cup medal earned while sitting on the bench for Bath’s 1998 success.

Now it seemed the best the Scots could aim for was a bonus point for a narrow defeat. But if urgency turns to panic, then silly errors soon follow. When a scoring pass was spilled on the Bay try-line and Jarvis – who else – promptly hoofed it into the Scots half and over the touch line, Scottish tried a quick throw in; Bay however had come up swiftly, and recaptured the ball, and Cheung-Fook was away for the home side’s second converted try.

Thus the consolation score Scottish did finally secure was not enough even for a point: it came about inevitably through an error, as Bay finally got things wrong n defence, Pellow’s pass was too sharp for Cheung-Fook and Matt Fitzgerald pounced and trundled over. Cholewa this time stepped up to the kicking tee, but to no avail.

Paul McFarland

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