London 2 South-West league leaders London Cornish comprehensively defeated Andover at the Richardson Evans on Saturday, scoring all 42 of their points in the final 50 minutes of the match after the visitors had produced a combative opening half hour. The win maintains the exiles gap at the top of the table, but stretches the distance back to the joint 3rd placed teams to 10 points.
A few changes had been made to the squad successful in the previous win at Portsmouth, a debut finally given to hooker Jake Slade, signed from Oldfield Old Boys in the close season and who had impressed in pre season, only to be injured in the final training session before the season opener. A man of the match pipe opener for the 2s the previous weekend saw Slade deservedly promoted here, allowing Tim Homan to move to his preferred back row slot, with Matt Hakes moving to the wing and Dan Leo a late withdrawal with illness. On the bench there were returns for Steve Wood and Will Dulley.
With a decent crowd gathered and an Argentinian exchange referee in charge, the game was all set. Andover have a large pack and put great store on their scrummaging ability, and they dominated the opening exchanges much as Portsmouth had done the previous week against Cornish. It was no surprise when the Hampshire side took the lead on 5 minutes, one of their forwards latching on to a loose flap back from a Cornish lineout 5 out to dive across the line for an unconverted try. Though the exiles huffed and puffed through these opening minutes, they had to rely on strong defence to rebuff the visitors, who missed a penalty and knocked on when well placed on a couple of occasions. A key moment on 23 minutes saw the visitors win a scrum v in the shadow of the posts, but they are a tight v who try to drive their opponents off the ball rather than hook it back, and were aghast to find a hooker in Slade who actually hooks the ball, him landing one of 3 steals against the head right when his team needed it most. Cornish lost Homan to a knock at this point, Wood on in his place at 6 giving the home side an extra line out option. Gradually finding their feet in the match, fly half George Kimmins reduced the arrears with a penalty on 30 and within 2 minutes his side had the lead. A spilt ball in the Andover backline just inside the exiles half saw full back Dave Smith fly hack on, and it was centre Miles Rushworth with the best turn of foot, him diving on the ball in a melee of players to register an unconverted try. The visitors responded by breaking from deep, a fine interchange between forwards and backs only ended when Smith tracked back deep into his 22 to down a runner just when a try seemed certain, a penalty won for holding and the danger cleared. With time almost up on the half, Andover attacked on half way, but as their centre juggled the ball, it was snaffled by the giant Tom Jeffery, who sprinted away down the right wing to score a try converted by Kimmins, the half time score a scarcely believable 15-5 to Cornish. Jeffery also took a knock in the act of scoring and was replaced at the break by Dulley.
What followed in the second half was about the most complete 40 minutes shift Cornish have produced in recent seasons. With their opening attack, a barnstorming Harry Somers run saw the lock cross halfway and power to the Andover 22. Wonderful hands across the backline from Kimmins, Skip Craig Chatley and Smith sent Hakes top toing down the left wing to score a superb try, improved by Kimmins to take the score to 22-5. The shellshocked visitors saw matters get worse 2 minutes later when Smith was given room wide right to show his pace and ease outside the cover to score the bonus point try wide right, though this was unconverted. 10 minutes later, and with the Cornish now winning the battle in the loose and at the lineout, it was Hakes who showed great power and tenacity to break 3 tackles and plunge across the line carrying a few more with him. Now the game was gone for the visitors, at 32-5 and the league leaders bulked up the pack further by bringing on Oli Low at loosehead for Mark O’Leary. Andover rallied briefly for a period, Cornish losing a man to the bin, but they were unable to move their rolling maul against an equally lumpy pack and seemed to tire once the game was up. The best was yet to come for the home side, a wonderfully executed backs move seeing Hakes used as a pivot for Smith to work around to score wide left, to great cheers from the home support buoyed by the ranks of The Dukes fresh from their win on an adjoining pitch. All that remained in the match was for Smith to complete his hat trick, which he duly did on 71 following more great backs interplay, allied to some hard yards from scrum half Rich Stephens (whose all round game was excellent), Somers and Dave Theobald taking play into the 22. The final score saw Cornish 42-5 to the good.
This was the biggest defeat Andover have suffered since they returned to the division last season. They have a young back line who will surely improve with experience and a lumpy pack who will trouble most teams in this division, so don’t expect them to get dragged into a relegation battle any time soon. Cornish move on, the level of their performance in the second half here a step up on previous ones, and with more players to come back into the mix it was a contented camp post match.