London Cornish recovered from a 20-0 deficit to narrowly edge a compelling match at the Richardson Evans Memorial Playing Fields in London 2 South-West on Saturday. That they did recover owed much to the use of 3 first half replacements by Head Coach Tom Sincock, and a fine 2nd half from new fly half Tom Hupfield - that they were in the need in the first place owed much to a fine performance by a Weybridge Vandals side bolstered by excellent performances from a couple of their uni reinforcements, and to a few of the home side having clearly enjoyed the Friday night festivities rather too much! The result sees Cornish remain in contention in 2nd place in the division at the half-way point in the season, though a clear improvement is required for the team to better last seasons performance and this match should serve as a warning shot that no match can be taken lightly. On the day, the major change in the Cornish team saw Chris Anstey called in to hook as 5th choice from his normal berth at blind-side, after Will Carew-Gibbs, Tim Homan, Gregor Morris and Shiv Khara were all ruled out. At half back Hupfield was joined by Dale at 9, while there were was also a return for top try scorer Tom Jeffery in place of broken nose victim Rich Skinnard.

The match began on the second pitch at the REMPF after it had proved impossible to mark a part of one of the touchlines on the first pitch. This pitch is narrower and significantly heavier than the other, and Cornish began playing away from the clubhouse end into a stiffening breeze. Vandals were on top right from the off, missing a penalty won for offside in the 2nd minute but then scoring with their opening attack when a missed tackle in midfield allowed them to execute a simple 2 on 1, well finished wide left by their winger. The conversion attempt hit the crossbar and bounced down - how significant could that prove to be, both in the context of this match and in the season overall? 5-0 to Vandals became 8-0 on 7 minutes when another offside saw a penalty landed. Seemingly finding room with every attack, the visitors threatened again on 13 when their excellent 9 sent his right wing away before Stefan Duda landed about the first tackle his side had made in the match so far to snuff out the danger. On 19 minutes another missed tackle in midfield and Weybridge repeated the finishing of their opening try, this one converted to give them a 15-0 lead. Clearly way short of their best, Cornish were being bested in nearly every facet of the game as too many of them were not at the races. Worse was to follow on 26, when the Vandals wing took a great line off his 10 to arrow through a gap and step the cover to score to the right of the posts, but this kick too was crucially wide to leave the score at 20-0 to the Surrey side. Shortly afterwards, Cornish brought on Dave Mills, Matt Johnson and Matt Hakes for Tom Lloyd, Mark Osei-Tutu and Luke Spells, Mills notably on in the front row as he continues his conversion from back row to prop. Gradually, as the excesses of the previous night worked their way out of those who had transgressed, Cornish began to improve, Ben Ievers bundled into touch 5 out after a scything run by Duda. Twice in the last few minutes of the half, Weybridge were pinged until Cornish elected to scrum the last play of the half 10 out on the left hand side of the visitors 22. From the scrum, Hupfield engineering a text book move to send full back Josh Allison over untouched wide right, the conversion missed but Cornish with a key foothold in the match and a few in the sparse crowd believing this could be significant.

With their opening attack of the 2nd half and following a driving Mills run, Hupfield flighted an angled kick in behind the visitors left wing, but the bounce eluded on the onrushing Jeffery. The warning wasn't heeded however, and on 44 minutes another Hupfield kick rolled invitingly to the back of the in-goal area and this time Jeffery made no mistake, pouncing on the ball for a try superbly converted from the right hand touchline by Phil Dale to reduce the arrears to 8. Now the entire momentum of the match had changed, and Cornish were suddenly winning many of the key battles, Jeffery a constant threat both with ball in hand and chasing down kicks in behind. With no 8 Simon Brading driving into midfield on 48, Vandals were caught offside for Dale to bring his side within one score. Keeping the visitors pinned in their half with a succession of great kicks, Hupfield worked hard to give his side the chance to get in front, but a combination of great defence and poor execution prevented the exiles being able to cross until just after the hour mark. A quick tap from a penalty on halfway by Dale saw him win a scrum when Vandals knocked on trying to intercept. At the scrum, Jeffery bashed a hole before Johnson drove through a tackle and offloaded to Hupfield to crash over for the try, the conversion by Dale giving his side the lead at 22-20. Cornish missed a penalty on 66 minutes as they sought to lock out the win. The match began to really open up in the remaining minutes, both sides desperate for the bonus point try and the win for differing reasons. It was clear that Vandals would try and run everything with their scrum increasingly under pressure and the wind against them, whilst Cornish perhaps tried the same move a few times too many in their efforts to get the key score. With Hakes and Donnelly stiffening the midfield, there was to be no further joy for the visitors there, but with a few too many of the exiles having very quiet games it would have been unfair for the visitors to have left with nothing, the final whistle sounded when Cornish elected to simply kick the ball into touch when last play was called.

Weybridge lost a phalanx of players in the close season, and it takes time to recover from that kind of loss. They were able to call on some occasional players on this day, and took the game to Cornish early on though unable to sustain the challenge. A points deduction elsewhere and the point gained here have thrown them a lifeline, and this well supported team will ruffle a few more feathers if they can repeat this performance post the Xmas break.

The Cornish players were left in no uncertain terms about what is required of them post that break. Its really up to them - stay available, train the once a week, and turn up fit to play and who knows what can be achieved?

A word on the ref - a young lad on some kind of busman's holiday from Perth, Western Australia, he was always up with play and had a calm air about him. Still a bit of a shock when he came to ask for his expenses though!! Enjoy your stay and good luck in the future.

Photos courtesy of Tim 'Flash' Evans.