LAUNCESTON joint head coach Ian Goldsmith admitted defeat to Royal Wootton Bassett on Saturday would have meant their promotion hopes were ‘probably over’, before the hosts secured a priceless late victory in Regional One South West.

With less than 90 seconds of normal time remaining, the Wiltshire visitors led 28-17, but stand-in skipper Brandon Rowley’s late double ensured the hosts secured a maximum five-point haul.

Leaders Exmouth ran out convincing 68-17 winners over Marlborough on Saturday, while in-form Barnstaple eased past Sidmouth 47-3 at Pottington Road to stay four and two points ahead respectively of the Cornishmen in third. Just one team goes up.

It was an imperative result for Launceston who were looking to bounce back from a shock 38-19 defeat at Sidmouth the week before where they conceded 26 points in just 12 minutes after the hour.

Goldsmith admitted it was a huge five points.

He said: “It could be a very significant win and we’ll find out how so in the coming weeks.

“A defeat would have been a really tough one to take. We thought last week was bad, but if we were beaten on Saturday it’d have been off the scale in terms of frustration and our season is probably over in terms of keeping pace with Exmouth and Barnstaple at the top.”

Such was Launceston’s first half dominance at Polson Bridge, they led 14-0 inside ten minutes and a combination of missed chances and heroic last-ditch defending kept the visitors in it before two tries from driving mauls got them to within three points at the break at 17-14.

And when they scored twice in the opening three minutes of the half, the shock was on.

But Rowley’s late heroics ensured the home supporters went home happy.

Goldsmith said: “First and foremost it says a lot about the players, that they will go to the very end.

“The other thing is we practice and practice a lot of things like lineouts and mauls, and sometimes you need them in those clutch moments so you can execute under pressure.

“But let’s not beat around the bush, we got ourselves in a huge hole which was all from our own doing.

“But again we kept on playing the type of rugby we have been for the majority of the season and looked a lot more threatening than we did last week. We’ve got a lot of good variety in our attack.”

While the tries they conceded were frustrating, Goldsmith was delighted with a number of individual performances.

He said: “Man of the match was Brandon (Rowley) who was absolutely brilliant with his number of carries, his decision-making as captain and his tackles in defence.

“In the forwards, Daniel (Goldsmith) and Mitch (Hawken) were great, as was Seb Cox when he came on.

“In the backs, Cam and Ben Bryant were also really good, as was Zerran (Hammond) who really stepped up in the second half. All of those guys really grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck!”

Launceston who have eight wins and two defeats from their ten games, have this Saturday off before welcoming Cornish rivals St Austell next weekend (November 30, 3pm kick-off).

The Saints arrive seventh in the 12-team division and eased to a 52-14 victory over strugglers Ivybridge on Saturday.

Goldsmith added: “Like usual with a bye week we’ll just train once on the Thursday to help the Castles with their match against Illogan Park, and on Wednesday several of the first team are doing some coaching with the minis and juniors before we build up to St Austell next Saturday.”