A failure to turn long periods of territorial (red zone) dominance into points nearly cost London Cornish their unbeaten record on Saturday, as hosts KCS also preserved their unbeaten home record with a late rally before nearly nicking the match with a penalty in injury time. The significance of the 2 points the visitors picked up became more apparent as the players huddled on the pitch post match, their lead at the top of London 2 South-West having actually extended to 12 points on the final whistle.
Over the years, Cornish have learned that KCS are often at their best at the start of the season or during the school holidays as they are bolstered by their returning Uni students, some of whom play at the top level in that sphere. The result was that the league leaders selected a strong squad, though it lacked a few of the bigger units at the club including Ben Ievers and Dan Leo, both unavailable for differing reasons.
On a damp, dank day, the visitors were quickly into their stride, George Kimmins landing a penalty on 6 minutes, though this was levelled by KCS with their first foray into Cornish territory on 12. 4 minutes later, the league leaders produced a fine passage of play as forwards and backs combined with a series of offloads, Skip Craig Chatley, Mark Osei-Tutu, Harry Somers and James La Broy all involved, before Dave Smith sent Tom Ievers crashing over for a try well converted by Kimmins. With their first attack of note and against the run of play, KCS levelled 5 minutes later when one of their locks strolled through from just inside the visitors 22 virtually unopposed, a rare breakdown in communication from the best defence in the league seeing the scores levelled with the conversion and something of a stewards enquiry following under the posts from the visitors! For the next 10 minutes Cornish won a series of 8 penalties in the far left hand corner of the pitch from the club house, rolling mauls pulled down and scrum offences galore, the referee doing extremely well to keep his cards in his pocket, and KCS using every trick in the book to prevent their line being crossed. The visitors were unusually complicit in their failure to score points here, dropping balls in mauls and not taking kicks at the posts when out in front. However, they did finally burrow their way over on 30, full back Smith yet to explain quite what he was doing imitating a front row and Kimmins landing the extras. Cornish continued to dominate territory in the remaining minutes, but were simply not as clinical as they have been so far this season, and met a very determined KCS, the score 17-10 to the exiles at the break.
Early in the second period Cornish lost scrum half Rich Stephens to a knock, and with no obvious replacement, Smith stepped into the breach for the first time in his life. Once more, the visitors pinned their hosts yards from their line for a sustained period, and once more an astonishing penalty count (10) was awarded inside the 22 against the hosts. On 3 occasions, as Cornish drove 5 metre scrums towards the home line, penalties were awarded and the scrum reset. When a card was finally awarded, it was for an unrelated high tackle offence as Miles Rushworth threatened to break through a gap close in. Crucially, Cornish missed a penalty to extend their lead during this passage of play, before on 57 minutes centre Dave Funston succeeded in angling his run between 2 defenders to land an unconverted try. The injury to Stephens had caused a wholesale reshuffle in the visiting back line, and KCS exploited this when they flighted a kick in behind their opponents back 3 on 62 for the ball to bounce obliquely into the arms of their onrushing right wing. Joe Donnelly performed miracles to down the lad just a few feet from the line, but the quickly recycled ball saw the home side crash over for a converted score to the delight of their support, who could sense that a smash and grab was well and truly on. 7 minutes later and the scores were levelled as a KCS back twisted out of a tackle as they attacked inside the 22 to plant the ball on the line for a score. This time, it was their kicker who was errant, him sending the ball across the posts. Now the momentum was all with KCS, and it was all hands to the pumps for Cornish as they sought to stem the time, Dave Theobald winning a turnover by holding up a home attack inside his 22. With time up KCS landed a penalty some way out but in a fairly central position. Their kicker, now showing signs of a hamstring strain, struck the ball well but it hit the outside of the left hand post and down for a drop out. With the last play signalled, KCS won another penalty, this one further out and to the left. With their kicker now hors de combat, one of their number fancied a pot, but the less said about this effort the better as it nearly went for a lineout! A couple of phases of frantic play later, Cornish won the ball and elected to settle for the draw. How good a decision this was only became apparent in that team huddle a short period afterwards, when news of results elsewhere filtered through.
For the neutral, this was a cracking match with much to admire in the dogged d employed by KCS. They are a particularly tough nut to crack on their own patch, and few if any will topple them there this season. The good relationship between these near neighbours was reinforced post match, and for Cornish this was a timely reminder that there is plenty of work to be done yet, whoever you are playing and wherever they are placed in the league.