LAUNCESTON joint head coach Ian Goldsmith admitted their form has ‘fallen off a cliff’ after they ended their Regional One South West campaign with an 87-14 drubbing at Brixham on Saturday.

The Fishermen, who finished as runners-up following champions Barnstaple’s final day victory over St Austell, ran in 13 tries at a sun-drenched Astley Park to hand the Cornishmen their heaviest defeat since returning to Step Five in the 2019/20 campaign.

However, the All Blacks were missing a number of key players for various reasons, particularly in the pack where Brixham dominated.

Goldsmith said: “We knew it’d be such a tough ask with our current form and availability and the way they’re playing, and it showed.

“Every mistake we made they were clinical and did exactly what you have to do against a team that’s not playing very well.

“We showed glimpses of what we can do when we had ball in-hand but we didn’t retain it for long enough.

“The scrum was also a huge problem. We had a strong front row but with five or six of the back five out it was really tricky.”

Launceston’s season has been a rollercoaster.

They flew out of the blocks to lead the table early on and heading into the clash at Barnstaple on January 25 had lost just 14 league games and knew a victory at Pottington Road would keep them in the title picture.

But they have failed to recover from the 40-7 reversal in North Devon and have lost the following seven to end fifth for the second successive season.

Goldsmith continued: “Our season ended up being very symmetrical, winning 11 and losing 11, although eight of the defeats came in the last eight games.

“We had an extremely strong first half and were in the top three for most of it, but we’ve just fallen off a cliff.”

When asked what he puts that down to, he said: “It’s no one particular thing. To be successful you need all the pieces of a jigsaw working together, and one by one they weren’t and before you know it you’re scrabbling around.

“Even on Saturday we lost Jamie Chapman with a broken arm and Cam Fogden to injury inside the first 25 minutes and that just compounds things.

“It’s also meant with our other long-term absentees we’ve taken the difficult decision to pull out of Saturday’s Papa Johns (Community) Cup clash at Barnstaple.

“We’re in no position at the moment to send out two competitive teams, and although it’s tough to have to notify Barnstaple, we’re going to prioritise the twos this weekend and their Shield semi-final against St Austell.”

The season is now over.

They were due to face one-league lower Wadebridge Camels in the final of the Cornwall Cup at Bodmin RFC on Easter Sunday (April 20), but with the Tamar Cup clash between Cornwall and Devon at Redruth the day before, the RFU have switched it to August with no official date or venue confirmed.

Launceston do have several players hoping for county honours.

Goldsmith concluded: “It’s great to see Mitch Hawken, Charlie Short, Dan Goldsmith, Brandon Rowley, Cam Fogden and Jose (Luis Juarez) invited to the training squad, and George (Hillson) will be turning out for Devon.

“To have six or seven players involved is great for them and for the club.”