London Cornish returned to bonus point territory with a comfortable 5 try win over Warlingham in London 2 South-West at the REMPF on Saturday. In a strong and freshening cross wind in cold conditions, Cornish landed a goal and 4 tries to 2 goals and a penalty in an improved performance on the previous week as the team benefitted from playing on back to back weekends for the first time in 2016.
Warlingham arrived at the REMPF for this rearranged league game having narrowly been defeated at KCS the previous week and having beaten Andover the week before, so the form lines suggested this might be another tight match. The date of the game had caught out a number of Cornish regulars, so Mark Osei-Tutu was deployed as an emergency lock, and Tim Homan recalled following a long injury absence at no 8, him having been given a freshener in the 2s last week. Out wide, none of the clubs regular 10s was available, so James Thomas was given the task.
Cornish began the match, which was played on the second pitch, playing towards the clubhouse end, and the exiles scored inside the first 60 seconds. A Will Carew-Gibbs break on halfway saw him link with Ed Atkin and the scrum half’s cutout pass provided Chris Smart with the chance to spin the ball to top try scorer Tom Jeffery, who needed no second invitation to sprint over wide right for an unconverted score. Under pressure from the off in the tight, the visitors 10 responded with a series of well flighted kicks to avert any danger, but when the Surrey side did gain good field position on 5 minutes, Tom Ievers nicked their lineout before a fine passage of interplay between forwards and backs saw Cornish clear. Warlingham reduced the deficit on 16 when Cornish failed to clear their lines following a kick and conceded a penalty the visiting 10 landed comfortably. On 22 another Carew-Gibbs break lead to Ben Ievers being tackled in the shadow of the posts, and when Atkin and Thomas worked the ball from right to left inside the visitors 22, their right wing simply batted the ball down and was binned. Twice more the visitors transgressed as Cornish hammered away with scrums and lineouts until on 25 a rolling maul saw Homan force his way over for the second try, this one also unconverted as the kick flew into the face of the wind. With the scrum dominance now so total the visiting tight head was forced up into the air by Mark O’Leary, Carew-Gibbs and Skip Dave Theobald, Cornish won another penalty on halfway at the set piece, which Josh Allison drove to 10 out down the left flank. However, rather than roll the maul, Cornish worked a set play in midfield to see Joe Donnelly come back around the maul to attack the blind side, the Warlingham d too late to respond as the powerful centre smashed his way between would be tacklers for the try wide left to put his side 15-3 up at the break.
For the second week running, Cornish started the 2nd half at a tremendous lick, Tom Ievers linking with Osei-Tutu to power into the visitors 22, and when Thomas fed an inside ball to Jeffery, there was no stopping the giant wing from clearing away to score by the posts, the bonus point claimed and Allison adding the extras. Smart had taken a knock in the passage of play, and with no physio available Cornish took the precaution of replacing him with Dave Soar for his first 1s match of the season. On 51 minutes, Cornish won another penalty at a scrum and when Atkin took it quickly his opposite number tackled him immediately and was binned for the offence. The home side took the opportunity to rest the excellent O’Leary and Chris Anstey at this point, Rory Ling and Matt James on in their places. On 58 minutes Soar went blind and fed Robin Heymann, who stepped his way infield before winning a penalty for hands in. Though the ball was lost in midfield, Warlingham dropped it over their try line and were forced to kick it dead. At the scrum, Homan tried to force his way over under the posts, but a clash of heads saw him break his nose, which the coaching team quickly patched up to at least stop the bleeding. It didn’t seem to hinder the Welshman, for when Ben Ievers claimed a lineout on 63 minutes down the right flank, it was he who was on hand to dive over for his second try of the match, unconverted to leave the score at 27-3. In the remaining 15 minutes the game became fractious as a series of scuffles broke out. Cornish lost a man to the bin for persistent offences on 69, and Warlingham made the extra man count to cross wide right on 73 for a converted try. Cornish lost another man to the bin for an offside inside the 22 on 78, but though Soar forced a knock on with a huge tackle in midfield for Cornish to clear their lines, another exile was binned with 1 left to play just as the first one returned! With only 13 men on the field to defend against them, Warlingham were good enough to land another converted try with the final play of the game to leave the final score 27-17.
It’s a shame Warlingham had to rush off so soon after the end of the game, not one of them making it back to the Telegraph, where a decent post match meal had been laid on for them. They have a tough run-in to navigate and wouldn’t want both Andover and Vandals to continue picking up points as they are not quite safe yet, though one win would probably do it. Cornish also have a tough run in, though Cobham’s demise in the Cup does at least mean that the remaining fixtures can now be confirmed with that one now inked in for April 9th.