A hugely motivated London Cornish won a physical London 1 South encounter with Kent side Old Colfeians at the Richardson Evans on Saturday. The result all but ensures Cornish will contest the division again next season, but leaves Colfe's in real relegation trouble as events elsewhere went against them this week.
Cornish could call on a plethora of available players for this one who, though short of match sharpness, they would certainly add to the talent on display. The game was played on the 2nd pitch at the REMPF, which was in remarkably good condition given it had hosted 26 7s matches during the preceding Rosslyn Park 7s week.
The home side began the game at a tremendous lick playing away from the clubhouse in calm conditions, the high tempo rewarded on 5 minutes when Andy Hill returned a poor clearance kick with interest, before linking with no 8 Matt Chambers down the narrow side. The burly Chambers is a tough man to bring down, and his sumptuous offload sent Skipper George Kimmins into space between 2 defenders before he arrowed outside the last man to slide over wide left. His place kicking since he has replaced his tee has been exemplary, and here he landed another fine touchline conversion to make it 7-0. 4 minutes later and it was another returnee in Tom Ievers who made tremendous ground, and when OC's were caught offside, one of their number threw the ball away to bring the kick into their half, and the predatory Kimmins range. Once again, he launched a great long distance howitzer over the posts, and the lead was out to 10. Weathering one hell of a battering in the opening quarter, OC's began to grow into the game, helped by Cornish conceding field position through the concession of penalties. They eschewed a couple of long range pens of their own to kick to the corner, but had clearly not read these match reports as the exiles very rarely concede to rolling mauls and matched their opponents for size on this day too. Finally, on 22 minutes, and after the exiles had failed to clear their lines when they had the chance, OC's manufactured room for one of their back row to crash over by the posts for a converted try. On the half-hour mark a Rich Stephens grubber was fielded by the OC's wing, who was immediately scragged by his opposite number Tom Jeffery in the 22. Cornish won the ball on the floor but threw a forward pass when in a great position wide left for the danger to be cleared at the scrum. On 36 minutes, and with the exiles repeatedly attacking, though perhaps too lateral in their approach, a loose ball was picked up just outside their 22 by the visitors, who manufactured room for their right wing to scamper away down the right flank and dive over for a score greeted with whoops of delighted by his excited teammates, the conversion good again. With time nearly up on the half, Cornish won a penalty and Stephens took a quick tap before linking with Joe Donnelly, the powerful centre smashing his way deep into the OC's red zone. As the Kent sides pack were slow to retreat following a La Broy drive, Stephens hit the rampaging Chambers on his shoulder, the Herts County no 8 far too powerful for the remaining defence, crashing across the line wide right to give his side the lead back (pictured). The conversion was narrowly missed, but OC's could at least reflect that they had managed to stay within a point despite barely 30% of the possession in the half.
OC's began the half well, and seemed to have worked room wide left for their wing to have a chance of a score with their first attack, but the lad was to have a half to forget as he dropped pretty much every pass that came his way, including this one. They worked their way back into the 22 after the clearance kick, but hooker Jake Slade produced a text book jackal steal before he was hit incredibly late in the midriff by the fop haired OC's back row coming in at the side, who probably could not have believed his luck that a penalty was the only sanction given. Cornish withdrew Oli Low for Jamie Robert-Tissot on 45 minutes, and after a Stephens grubber took play into the OC's half, the visitors were pinged for not releasing at a tackle on their 10 metre line, Kimmins extending the lead to 4 points with the nudge. 8 minutes later and the visitors were pinged again following another Chambers carry targetting the soft tackling visitors 10 channel, this time a little further out and once again Kimmins launched a huge kick to make it 21-14 with 26 remaining. Bouyed by his kicking success, Kimmins had another opportunity almost immediately when OC's were pinged for offside following an exchange down the left flank, but this effort from wide left just inside the visitors half fell short to be cleared. On the hour mark, and following a strong carry by centre Chris Smart, who is enjoying a decent run in the side, Stephens and Kimmins combined to send Chambers through a gap inside the OC's half, and he drew a man before putting Dan Phoenix in space, him downed just a metre from the line, but the ball was lost in contact and the opportunity went begging. With the error count increasing as the 2 teams tired and neither side winning the battle in the tight, OC's won a pen inside the Cornish 22 for a late tackle just to the right of the posts. The OC's kicker had seemingly been unsettled by the amount of traffic rampaging down his channel, as he drove his kick wide of the posts. Back they came with 5 left, fashioning room for their overlapping full back to arrow towards the line wide left, but he was smashed into touch by a superb cover tackle by blind side wing Hill, the danger averted for the moment. On 77 minutes and after a series of pick and go's, one of the Kent sides back row managed to pick the ball off the side of the ruck and wriggle over for a try half way in to the posts, the score now 21-19 with the conversion to follow. However, their kicker pulled the key conversion attempt wide as his stuttering approach allows teams the chance to get close to him by the time he kicks, so Cornish still had a 2 point advantage with 2 left on the clock. OC's won the restart and found their loosehead in space, but as he was felled it was Slade who exacted sweet revenge for the late tackle, him over the ball and winning a penalty just inside the Kent outfit's half. Up stepped Kimmins, and this kick flew between the uprights with room to spare to given him a personal haul of 19 points on the day, the referee blowing for full-time to jubilation from Cornish, winners by 24-19.
Colfeians have a key match at Thurrock on Thursday, and it looks as though defeat there would leave them doomed to an early return to Level 7, as they have been playing catch up in London 1 South ever since they lost their opening 6 matches following promotion via the Play-Offs.
Cornish extend their run to 3 without defeat, and though they lacked some of the cutting edge of the early season wins, they have weathered the injury storm to consolidate the undefeated season, and should be congratulated for that. 3 games to go, and with the pressure off a chance to build some momentum for the next campaign.