A poor performance across the team saw London Cornish lose top spot as visitors Portsmouth deservedly took the spoils at the Richardson Evans on Saturday. One of the only bright spots on a dank day was the fact that the match was on at all, the investment in the drainage during the close season evident in the quality of the playing surface, belying the standing water all around the pitch. Cornish were forced into a couple of changes from the squad that had won so comfortably at Cobham, scrum half Ed Atkins unavailable and one of the other squad scrum halves Sam Williams failing a fitness test on an ankle injury, so Rob Healey was recalled at 9; elsewhere, Stefan Duda was away and his back up Rich Skinnard had still not recovered from a hamstring strain, so Matt Hakes was called in on the wing. Finally, full back James Thomas had not recovered from a knee injury sustained against Cobham, so Jackson Szabo was recalled at full back.

On a wet and blustery day, Cornish played away from the clubhouse in the opening period and at the first scrum took the ball against the head before Healey dashed down the narrow side and the league leaders won a penalty, but the effort flew narrowly wide. Though Cornish had early territorial dominance, they unusually began knocking the ball on when under no pressure, and this was to dog their efforts all day. On 11 minutes and with their first attack Portsmouth struck when they created a series of phases before their full back, who had a fine game, cut a great line to pierce the first line d and dart away from the cover to dive over to the right of the posts for a converted try. On a number of occasions in the next 10 minutes Cornish won penalties that fly half Phil Dale kicked into the 22, but for once the lineout malfunctioned consistently, and ball was either knocked on or not cleanly taken for the danger to be cleared. On 25 minutes Portsmouth lost a man to the bin for a dump tackle, and Dale once again launched the ball to 10 out. Ben Ievers won the lineout and Cornish drove on, but instead of launching the maul, Mark Osei-Tutu spotted a gap and dashed off the back, stepping a tackle to crash across the line for the try, the conversion striking an upright but wide. With rain starting to fall, it was apparent that Cornish were still in a slumber and Portsmouth were winning the battle at the breakdown, frequently crossing the gainline and having half backs sticking to the gameplay of playing for territory. The half-time whistle went and few could argue that the visitors didn't deserve to be ahead 5-7.

Cornish won a penalty from the off at the restart when Tom Jeffery carved his way upfield on a slice move and a lazy runner prevented the ball being recycled. Cornish kicked to the corner, but in a microcosm of their misfiring on the day the lineout was knocked on for Portsmouth to clear at the scrum. 5 minutes later and following a huge Craig Chatley clearance, Cornish won a scrum 10 out on the right hand side but this time it was knocked on at the base for the ball to be cleared. This pattern repeated itself on 53 minutes when the exiles won another penalty, kicked to the 22 on the right hand side, won the lineout and then knocked on in midfield when in great field position. Such profligacy is always going to cost teams and Cornish were nearly made to pay on the hour when Pompey missed a kickable penalty of their own to the left of the posts. Rory Ling came on for Mark O'Leary at this point and was quickly followed by Joe Donnelly and Joe Bough on for Healey and Harry Somers, the reshuffle seeing Dale to 9 and Chatley to 10. Back row Matt Johnson won another penalty on 62 but this time the kick missed touch, to add to a growing frustration of Cornish players and supporters alike. On 65 minutes the visitors made a hash of a clearance and full back Jackson Szabo was on it in a flash but his fly hack rolled agonisingly over the dead ball line. On 67, Cornish finally pieced together a series of phases to drive to the Portsmouth 22, only for a poor decision to be taken to chip the ball, it landing squarely in the arms of a defender to call mark. The visitors kicking game had frequently outsmarted that of the league leaders and on 69 minutes, this cost the exiles any remaining hopes of winning the match when the visitors 13 waltzed clean through a very poor kick chase from an equally misdirected kick before 2 passes gave their right wing the chance to plant the ball down for a score wildly celebrated by the Hampshire side, and though the conversion missed you sensed the game was up. The Cornish restart didn't make the distance handing possession straight back to Portsmouth and another great kick pinned the home side back in their 22 as the rain fell more heavily. With 4 minutes remaining and Cornish chasing the game, yet another knock on saw the ball spilt, and the visiting left wing fly hacked on twice to dive on the ball for a converted score. It was entirely in keeping with the match that it finished with Cornish knocking the ball on again as they tried to run from their 22.

Portsmouth played the conditions beautifully and were full value for their win. Their handling and all round game plan execution was far superior to their hosts on the day, and they now have 3 wins on the bounce on which to build. Their players and supporters have always fronted up and come back to the Telegraph post match, sometimes on the back of hidings, so well done to them and we hope they had a great bus ride home!

The break post the Cobham match has seen Cornish slip off their game, not being helped by the one night a week training having to be cancelled on one of those weeks, a situation the DoR is aiming to correct in the medium term if the club is to progress. The team looked like the one that had just started the season rather than one a quarter of the way through it, and only hard work on the training field will correct this. The one other bright spot on the day was the welcome news that current Player of the Year Will Carew-Gibbs, Skipper Dave Theobald and former Prem player Simon Brading had all made it through their respective come back matches in the clubs other teams, giving Head Coach Tom Sincock some additional ammo in the weeks ahead. The exiles have never been ones to throw the baby out with the bathwater after a defeat, so it will be interesting to see how the players respond to this one.