In the style of the multiple title winning Liverpool football team of the 1970s and 80s, London Cornish edged a ‘1-0 away win’ without hitting any real heights in landing a 19-10 victory at relegation threatened Effingham & Leatherhead at Browns Lane on Saturday. If it proves to be the dying of the light for the longest serving team in London 2 South-West, they demonstrated here that they will not be going down without a fight. The one sad note for the exiles on the day, was the season ending injury suffered by young centre Miles Rushworth, more of which later.
For the last time this season, Cornish fielded a lightweight pack with no Dan Leo, Harry Somers, James La Broy or Mark Osei-Tutu available for a variety of reasons. The game was played on the lower pitch at the home sides ground, on a cold day with a strong wind blowing straight down the pitch. The opening 10 minutes were at complete odds with the rest of the match, as both teams landed their only tries; on 5 minutes kicked a penalty to the right hand corner, and when Ben Ievers claimed the lineout, Eagles seemed to get confused about whether or not to contest. The upshot was that a couple did but the rest did not, and it didn’t take a huge shove for Cornish to be over for the score, Matt Hakes the grateful recipient. Into and across the wind and with Dave Smith holding the ball on the kicking tee, you cannot underestimate what a fine conversion George Kimmins landed to give his side a 7-0 lead. However, the exiles made a hash of gathering the restart, and never really managed to organise their defence before the diminutive Eagles 15 twinkle-toed his way through some half hearted tackles to cross wide left, arrowing in toward the posts to make his kickers job a formality with the wind at his back. 5 minutes later the home side grabbed the lead, an unnecessary penalty conceded by Cornish at a ruck, landed with aplomb by the Eagles 9. The game then became something of a wrestling match, despite the league leaders having a complete domination in the tight that was remarkably poorly rewarded throughout the match. Cornish twice fashioned overlaps down the right wing on 23 and 32 minutes, but on both occasions unusually butchered the opportunities by spilling the ball with the line at their mercy. In the loose, the lightweight Cornish back row were frequently outmuscled on the floor, surrendering significant possession to the home side, who probed with ball in hand but seemed very reluctant to kick for territory, perhaps mindful of the predatory instincts of the visitors full back Smith, who was to see very little of the ball in hand. On 31 minutes, as the exiles ran the ball out of defence, Rushworth went to dash between two defenders only for one to go way too high (not intentionally, the lad just got it wrong). As another wrapped him up below, the young centre had a leg caught underneath and it audibly went, delaying the match while he could be treated, carried off and an ambulance called. On in his place came 1st team Skipper Craig Chatley, and it says much for Rushworth’s recent form that the Skipper was benched on his return to action. With play corralled in to the middle third of the pitch, there was no other significant action until Cornish landed a penalty on 37, which Kimmins drove between the posts to leave the score at the break 10 all.
Now with the wind at their backs, Cornish could anticipate greater territory in the 2nd half, but they would be hampered by their inability to retain possession for anything more than 3 or 4 phases as they did not have the weaponry to prevent Eagles back row from either slowing the ball down, or turning it over by holding the ball carrier up. Kimmins gave the league leaders the lead with a penalty for a scrum offence (at last) on 43 minutes, and then extended it with another on 48 after scrum half Rich Stephens was illegally collared at a ruck. Eagles sensed that they could still get something from the game, and dominated for a period of 10 minutes or so, Chris Kolapo-Ajala showing great defensive qualities as the home side attacked down the right flank. Since Mark O’Leary, Jake Slade and Dave Theobald had their opposite numbers under such pressure in the tight, Eagles resorted to wheeling every scrum to avoid being driven backwards, and why not given they were not being pinged for it? The hosts missed a long range penalty on 53 but were back on the attack shortly afterwards, and when they worked a move down the short side their left wing looked certain to score until a superb Kolapo-Ajala covering tackle dislodged the ball in the act of the score, the knock on allowing Cornish to win the scrum and clear their lines, much to the obvious disappointment of the home support on the bank in front of which the action had happened. The visitors continued to be hampered by a bout of dropsies when in decent field position, and perhaps the biting wind and steady rain had something to do with this, but it gifted a ton of possession to the home side and it took a huge tackle count by comfortably the best defence in the league to prevent any score, Dave Funston and Steve Wood notable for their defensive work, joining Hakes and Chatley who seems to thrive in such situations. The lack of penetration eventually resulted in frustration for the home side, and their 9 as binned for an off the ball incident with about 5 remaining, Kimmins lifting the resultant penalty on the wind to take his team out to a 9 point lead. A dawning realisation that they were about to get nothing from the game saw Eagles up the ante again in the closing minutes, but though they won two penalties some distance out wide left, their main kicker was in the bin and his back up does not strike the ball with anything like the same cleanliness, the ball dropping harmlessly wide and short on both occasions. When the whistle blew for full time, a turgid match had gone the way of the league leaders.
The failure to land the bonus point was seen to be more profligate when news of Andover’s win at Exiles came through, as now Effingham are 3 points from safety, and probably requiring a minimum 2 wins from their last 4 matches to survive. They have clearly improved in recent games, but so have Andover and it will be some tussle between the pair.
Despite not really firing on the day, Cornish will take the win and move on in the knowledge that a bonus point win at Old Tonbridgians in Richmond next week will see them become London 2 South-West League Champions for the first time – it is no foregone conclusion however, as OT’s just landed a 5 pointer at Winchester and will be hellbent on ruining the party! The addition of Messrs Somers, La Broy and Osei-Tutu to the fray will at least mean that it will be a far more powerful pack that go into battle for St Piran next weekend than was present on this occasion…