A Miles Rushworth hat-trick at Andover on Saturday saw London Cornish move within 10 points of the London 2 South-West Championship with 5 rounds still remaining. While the performance wasn’t as fluent as some this season, there were still a number of picture book tries for the increasingly large travelling Cornish contingent to enjoy, as the visitors once again wore a team down to win going away in the final quarter.
Cornish made a raft of changes from the previous week, selecting the youngest, lightest squad seen in black & gold this season; the unavailable Nick Goss, Harry Somers and Dan Leo were replaced by Jake Slade, Matt Hakes and Tom Patton in the pack, while out wide the long awaited return of scrum half Rich Stephens also saw rare outings for Joe Donnelly and Tom Havercroft, with full debuts given to Chris Kolapo-Ajala and Pete Smith. On the bench, Gregor Morris received a call after a successful return from around a year out with injury, and there was also a call for Andy Hakes, brother of Matt. On arriving at the Goodship Ground, James La Broy commented “This place is in the middle of nowhere!” La Broy is from Bude. The pitch was in great condition and the only slight blot for the league leaders was the late withdrawal through illness of the physio, leaving no time to source a replacement. As it turned out, Cornish didn’t suffer a single knock in the game, so none was required, though Andover had kindly offered the use of theirs in the case of any injury.
Cornish opened playing down the slope towards the clubhouse, and with Spring having apparently arrived early, scored in the opening minute of the match. From inside their 22, the visitors worked the ball wide to Smith down the left flank, the full backs inside ball sending Rushworth, playing in his favoured centre slot, angling across the pitch, three handoffs seemingly seeing him head towards his father on the far side of the pitch before rounding the final defender to score to the right of the posts, George Kimmins making it a 7-0 lead. The combination of the early score and the new combinations in the team saw a disjointed Cornish effort in the next quarter of an hour, Andover missing 2 kickable penalties before another break out on 18 minutes involving Smith and Kolapo-Ajala saw the ball moved to Matt Hakes arriving at pace to clear away from the defence and cross to the left of the posts for another score converted by Kimmins. The fly half added a penalty from in front on 22 minutes and Cornish had control. However, a rare refusal to listen to the very clear instructions of the referee ceded a ton of possession and territory to the hosts, hungry to gain something from the match in their battle to avoid the drop. A forward was lost to the bin by the exiles around the half hour mark, and Andover took play deep into the visitors 22 for a period, attempting rolling mauls and scrums to get across the line. In the end, the referees patience snapped as a visitors back row detached from a scrum and he fairly awarded a penalty try, which was converted to leave the score at the break 17-7 to the league leaders.
A fast start to the first half was mirrored by a similar one to the second, La Broy taking a great line off Kimmins in the opening stanza of the 2nd period to sprint to the shadow of the posts before offloading to the supporting Patton to score underneath them, Kimmins taking the score to 24-7. This score seemed to spur the Hampshire side on, still being aided by a high penalty count from their visitors. Following a series of attempts down the right flank in front of their balcony, one of their forwards finally found his way across the line for a converted try on 50 minutes. This signalled a couple of changes for Cornish, Oli Low and Patton withdrawn for Tom Lloyd and Andy Hakes to come on. A key passage of play followed, which saw Cornish lose another forward to the bin before Andover elected for a series of scrums close to the Cornish line. 3 times they tried to drive their way over, but made no progress and when they spun the ball down the short side, Donnelly smashed their left wing into touch close to the corner flag, Ben Ievers winning the lineout and Stephens making the clearance. On 67 minutes Stephens (warming to his task as the game wore on), Kimmins, Donnelly and Smith combined down the left wing to work the ball to the supporting Rushworth, who evaded a last ditch tackle before scoring wide out, the conversion flying wide but the game now up for Andover and the bonus point landed for Cornish. 5 minutes later Rushworth had his hat-trick after Tom Ievers burst through a gap on halfway down the right side and sent a reverse pass to the young centre to round the posts for a score improved by Kimmins. Gloss was added to the score in the final minute when Kolapo-Ajala was finally given room to stretch his legs down the left hand side, diving over for an unconverted try, the final whistle sounding shortly afterward with the league leaders worthy victors by 41-14.
For the second successive season Andover are in a rare old battle to avoid relegation, this time with Effingham & Leatherhead. The latter have staged a mini revival to edge ahead in the race, and it may well go down to the wire given the respective fixture lists. The Hampshire side will need to be more clinical in their finishing both with ball in hand and with boot if they are to survive, no guesses here as to which way it will go.
Cornish edge 5 points closer to the seasons no 1 goal, that of winning London 2 South-West. The league takes a break now as the focus returns to the Cup, and with so many selection options available to the coaching team off the back of this game, training should prove key to the selection conundrum!