London Cornish scored 4 goals, 4 tries and a penalty to record their biggest win of the season against basement side Basingstoke in London 2 South-West yesterday. The win consolidated the exiles in 2nd place in the division with 2 games to go before the mid season break.

With Matt Johnson not yet recovered from a knock sustained in the previous match, there was a recall at 6 for Chris Anstey, Phil Dale started at 9 and there was full debut for former Barnes fly half Tom Hupfield at 10. After a string of decent performances for the 2s, Andy Nichols was recalled at 15, otherwise there was a familiar look to the Cornish side. The pitch at the REMPF was in good condition given the recent rainfall, and on a dark, overcast but very blustery day the match began with Cornish playing towards the clubhouse end in the opening period. It took the Hampshire side a matter of seconds to banish their not having registered a point for 3 matches, a penalty landed as a result of the opening passage of play giving them a 0-3 lead. However, at the restart, the Bude flyer Stefan Duda knocked the ball back to Will Carew-Gibbs, and his pivot saw him clear away to the 22 and link with Harry Somers. His fend enabled him to take play to the Basingstoke line, and as one of the Cornish forwards went to plant the ball over the line, a visiting forward leapt offside to prevent the act, the referee awarding a penalty try, which Dale converted. 5 minutes later and after the visitors had lost a front row after he was hurt as their pack was driven backwards on their own ball, Hupfield hit wing Tom Jeffery on the slice and he broke a tackle to canter over for a try also converted by Dale. Stoke harshly lost a player to the bin at this point, him adjudged to have dump tackled an exile. It was Jeffery in the action again on 14, his run seeing Stoke pinged in front for offside, Dale taking the lead out to 17-3. 4 minutes later the Cornish backs worked the ball to Duda wide left and he stepped inside twice before careering away to score wide left, this on unconverted. On 25 minutes Basingstoke's replacement front row was also injured, forcing uncontested scrums for the rest of the game, though the referee ruled that as the injury was to the visitors replacement front row, they did not need to go down to 14 men. This provided the visitors with a platform from which they were able to demonstrate that they do have some talented backs, though they found both Tom Ievers and Anstey in imperious form on the floor and were frequently turned over. On the stroke of half-time, Cornish worked a move off the back of a scrum just outside the Stoke 22, Craig Chatley and Joe Donnelly both involved to send Jeffery walking in wide right, the bonus point try unconverted to leave the half-time score 27-3 to Cornish.

Basingstoke were the first to score in the second half too, a cross kick on 47 minutes catching on the wind, then bouncing obliquely right into the arms of their right wing, who finished well though the conversion was short. There was another price to pay for conceding this try for the home side, Nichols suffering a nasty looking shoulder injury, him replaced by Allison. Cornish struck back on 51 minutes, Jeffery brought into midfield on an angle to drive over wide right carrying a couple of players with him in the process. Dales conversion was expertly judged, it flighted on the wind to bend inside the right hand upright from some distance out. 7 minutes later the exiles thought they had scored again, but to much chuckling from the Stoke players the referee could not award the try as he had not seen Mark Osei-Tutu plant the ball firmly across the line on the blind side. Cornish were utterly dominant now, and but for the excellent tackling from the Basingstoke full back could have been out of sight after an hour. On 61 minutes the home side gained due reward for their dominance, carries by Carew-Gibbs, Skip Dave Theobald, Hupfield and Somers taking play to 5 out before Ben Ievers crashed over for the 6th try converted by Dale to take the score to 41-8. Tom Lloyd and Joe Bough came on for Rory Ling and Somers at this point and they were both in the action quickly, with the exiles seeing plenty of ball in the closing stages. A great move on 70 saw the penultimate try, Allison taking a great line off Hupfield to cross wide right. The final try in the closing minutes was made by Hupfield, his weaving run linking with Duda. The Bude flyer had plenty to do, but he angled his run across the pitch to outpace the d and cross wide right, the conversion missed but the action now over at 51-8 in the gathering gloom (see photo).

There are plenty of aspects of Basingstoke's game that suggest they can arrest their slide, their restarts alone some of the best seen at the REMPF this season. They have a young side in whom the new hierarchy have placed their trust following the upheavals of last season, and they will be back, though it might take a little while yet before that climb begins.

Cornish will be pleased to have returned to bonus point ways with this win, though the focus will need to remain for the 2 remaining fixtures prior to the Christmas break.