The South African batsman were not the only ones in the runs on Saturday, as a series of London Cornish's 1s squad was struck down by a gastric virus on the Friday night and into match day. The upshot was that the team travelled with a number of players who had were a little lighter than their fighting weight, and it is to the teams great credit that they found enough energy to turn round a 12-6 half-time deficit to win a key match at Winchester in London 2 S/W.

With players being sick in the warm up, and stand in full back Chris Smart tweaking a hamstring, Cornish had far from the ideal prep to be playing a Winchester side beginning to recover their poise in the division in front of a big crowd, thankfully swelled by some significant travelling support. All those ill and injured in the warm up chose to give it a go, the exiles playing up the slope in the opening period on a tacky but drying pitch. With the opening action barely under way, lock Joe Bough rushed to the sideline to be sick before running back into the fray! He saw his side take an early 3-0 lead after the diminutive pairing of hooker Will Carew-Gibbs and scrum half Ed Atkin combined to win a penalty converted by fly-half Tom Hupfield on 8 minutes. 5 minutes later, and following a weak kick chase, the home side manufactured room for one of their forwards to dive over half-way in from the right hand touchline for an unconverted score. On 20 minutes Winchester were pinged for offside in midfield right in front of their posts for Hupfield to give his side the lead back at 6-5. Cornish open side Chris Anstey took a knock to the head at this point and was replaced by Owen Bater. With Winchester having territorial advantage but being rebuffed by strong Cornish d, it took a throw of the dice by the home right wing to give his side back the lead when his chip ahead bounced obliquely into his hands and away from the understandably laboured cover for him to scamper over for a converted try wide right. At the restart Cornish lost a man to the bin for an offence on half-way, and the visitors spent much of the remaining minutes of the half defending, Matt Johnson, Bater, and Craig Chatley racking up the tackle count. First a Joe Donnelly interception and then a Chatley punt after a home knock on cleared the danger, and Cornish were happy to be able to turn round only 6 points down.

Right from the off in the 2nd half it was clear that Cornish had upped the tempo. A Mark O'Leary carry saw Winchester pinged but the penalty attempt was pulled left. With the Cornish scrum now utterly dominant, Winchester were frequently pinged and despite the best efforts of their no 8, the home side would spend much of the remainder of the match defending. On 45 minutes Smart could carry on no longer, Phil Dale on at 10 with Hupfield moving to full back. Within 6 minutes, a tremendous series of phases with both forwards and backs involved, Carew-Gibbs, O'Leary, Ben Ievers, Donnelly and Johnson all involved, pierced the home defence and allowed the ball to be spun to Chatley to virtually walk over wide right for an unconverted try. With the momentum having swung firmly in their favour, Cornish seemed to playing with renewed vigour and when Robin Heymann countered from a kick, a Winchester forward was binned for a ruck offence as the penalty count against the home side climbed. Within a minute he was joined on the sidelines by a fellow forward for something said to the referee, and this time Cornish set a maul, then hammered away with Bough, Bater, no 8 Mark Osei-Tutu and Ievers all involved before Atkin sniped over to plant the ball on the line to the left of the posts, the referee right on the spot to award the score converted by Dale to give his side an 18-12 lead. The Hampshire side responded, and won a penalty smack in front on 64, which was converted to reduce the deficit to 3, but they were not again to visit the Cornish 22 in the match. Despite a series of scrums being driven at pace toward their line inside the 22 in the remaining minutes, a combination of heroic work by their back row and some interesting interpretation at both scrum and lineout saw the home line remain intact. With time nearly up Winchester seized on a knock on in their 22 and made ground up the right flank, but as they hit the deck Carew-Gibbs was over the ball in a flash to win the penalty that Cornish kicked into touch, ensuring the spoils went home with the exiles.

Winchester continues to be one of the toughest venues to visit in the league, and with many of the teams big guns now back in action, you can expect results to continue to improve in the remainder of the season. It wouldn't take much to turn this side into title contenders, and it will be interesting to see how they develop.

Cornish had to go into this match without a series of regulars, added to which was the issue of illness sweeping the team. This win, coupled with the continued excellent form of the resurgent 2s demonstrates that there is plenty of depth at LCRFC. It will be needed as there remain challenges every week between now and the end of April.