London Cornish solved the 22nd and final puzzle of a stellar season to produce the RFU’s first ever unbeaten season in a 22 game London South-West Level 7. The only other time this league has been won unbeaten was when Jersey won it in a 20 game season back in 2004-5. You need a little luck, a lot of skill and a bucket load of organisation to win any league, let alone to do it unbeaten, so this is some achievement by such a tiny club. The stats also support the suggestion that this is some team too, with the biggest margin back to the 2nd placed team in the leagues history and to the 3rd placed team too, as the exiles landed try bonus points in a league leading 18 of the 22 matches, dropping just 8 points along the way.
The combination of a stag weekend and the Twickenham Big Game meant that there were plenty of players unavailable for the final game of the season, no Dave Theobald or Jake Slade up top (and Oli Low still recovering from the eye injury suffered the previous week), no Tom Ievers, Matt Hakes or Chris Anstey in the back row, and at centre no Craig Chatley, which compounded an already weakened centre section with Dave Funston, Miles Rushworth and Joe Donnelly all injured. On the plus side, hooker Tim Homan returned from a few months out with a knee injury, and top try scorer David Smith was available after a month long absence abroad. On the bench Dan Leo was joined by debutant Ross Harper, a Porthleven lad who had forced his way into selection following a decent season in the 2s. The ability to plug the gaps when players have been unavailable or injured has been key to the teams success, with over 40 players gaining selection during the season, but 14 of them on 15 or more occasions.
Twickenham had produced a decent response to being relegated and level transferred at the end of last season, and sat 4th in the league with hopes of closing out 3rd if they could topple the Champions. They had relied on a lumpy pack to roll over a few teams in recent weeks, but will have known that that tactic was unlikely to work on this occasion. The game began in warm sunshine on a well grassed but bone hard pitch with Cornish playing away from the clubhouse with a decent crowd in attendance. With the league already wrapped up, you always wonder if a team will mentally have packed up early, and it sometimes takes adversity to awaken the fire within – so it was with this match. Twickenham came out fired up, and as one of these teams who celebrate every turnover and every decent tackle as if there numbers have come up in the lottery, there was plenty of whooping and ahollering in the opening half hour. They scored two tries wide left in this period, one of which was converted, as Cornish got squarely on the wrong side of the referee. To compound matters, the exiles lost the only natural centre they had in the squad when Chris Smart pulled a groin (Smith moved to centre and Jeffery to full back), and then lost a man to the bin for a ruck offence inside the 22. By the time the home side had added a couple of penalties to their total, they were good value for their 18-0 lead, though perhaps may have felt they could have scored more points for all that dominance and possession. When players repeat mantras such as “That’s all they’ve got” and “They don’t want it”, you wonder who they are trying to convince, no panic in the Cornish ranks and the travelling support even happy to suggest that they were confident their charges would pull it out of the bag. Another early change saw Tom Lloyd introduce at prop in place of Rory Ling, who had missed plenty of rugby this season. You suspected Twickenham had to make it to the break without conceding if they were to keep a side at bay who have made a habit of producing barnstorming 2nd halves. They couldn’t. On 35 minutes at a scrum, Mark Osei-Tutu broke blind and beyond the first line d, flicking the ball to Harper sprinting up in support. The diminutive back dashed over wide right, dotting down for the try shortly before the cover could smash him into touch. When the home side lost their talismanic 8 to an injury shortly afterward, the sense the tide was turning grew further, and George Kimmins reduced the arrears to 10 at the break when he drove a decent penalty between the uprights, Twickenham 18-8 to the good.
The second half saw Cornish produce the brand of rugby that has launched them to the Championship, and the massive gear change was one with which the home side simply could not live. Chris Kolapo-Ajala took a great line on halfway to break clean through, and sprinted under the posts for Kimmins to add the extras on 44 minutes, before another great line from prop Mark O’Leary off a Paddy Dean pop pass saw the tyro bullock his way to 5 out from the 15 metre line and offload to Rich Stephens to score by the posts on 49, Kimmins adding the 2 to turn the game on its head and silence the high school stuff. Though Twickenham reduced the arrears on 55 minutes, the combination of powerful runs from the likes of Ben Ievers, James La Broy and O’Leary was punching huge holes in the home d, and with offloading frequently going to hand, Cornish looked a completely different team now. Any respite the home side felt they might get was quickly removed when Cornish brought on Leo for an injured Osei-Tutu, and the Heineken Cup Winner soon brought his Samoan aggression both to the breakdown and the hard yards, sitting down a couple of would be tacklers in one break that resulted in the Champions winning a penalty on the hour mark, Smith also involved in the move with a run involving more side steps than a Fred Astaire dance. Homan launched the lineout, Harry Somers claimed it, and a withering rolling maul followed, Homan breaking off the back of it to claim the bonus point try, Cornish now 27-21 to the good. One of the home backs turned to the celebrating visiting coaching team to make the familiar refrain “You should be winning, the amount of money you pump into your team.” You know you have a team beaten when they convince themselves they are up against a semi-pro outfit, however wide of the mark the comment may have been. Kimmins delivered the coup de grace on 76 minutes, arrowing through a gap before sprinting clear to score a try he converted by the posts. Cornish had scored 34 points in the final 50 minutes of the match with only 3 in reply. It turns out the Champions did want it and that wasn’t all they had after all, the game ending with a melee after which the referee sensibly called time!
Twickenham end up 5th, and only they will know if that matches the ambition they had at the start of the season. They will watch on with interest to see if they are to remain in this league or head back to 2 North-West next season. As ever, decent hosts pre and post match, and the Cornish sponsors were delighted to have drunk them out of Tribute in the clubhouse!
Unbeaten! It has a great ring to it, and before Cornish plan for next season, there will be a short period of celebration up to and including the Annual Dinner on 13th May. It also means the 55th Season Anniversary Dinner in Cornwall in October will be held with the club at the highest point in its history, which is fitting for such an event. We say goodbye to some long time opponents, many of whom have been in touch to offer their congratulations – they have all beaten us in their turn over the decade spent in London 2 South-West, and this exceptionally tough league has prepared all recent Champions well for the step up. We also look forward to renewing acquaintances with a few old friends in London 1 South, and to welcoming a host of new clubs to the REMPF. The recruitment drive is already under way, and whatever the outcome, it should be some adventure ahead in 2017-18!