Who would be a coach? Most of the teams in this attritional London 2 South-West division can field a side capable of winning most of the matches on their day. The trick is who can field theirs the most times; witness the last 3 league weekends; Cornish beat Old Reigatians, Reigatians beat Guildford and Guildford beat Cornish. All 3 coaches left rueing the absence of players they couldn’t field for various reasons; all feeling borderline manic depression on the final whistle of the matches lost because all know their sides can win these games! Your correspondent had sat in a pub supping the black stuff in Ennis near Shannon in south-west Ireland on the Thursday night, listening to a 17 piece trad band produce a series of great ballads with but one thought on his mind – would the myriad changes we had had to make to our squad in recent weeks come home to haunt us against Guildford?

Cornish came into the game in decent league form having managed to field very strong sides in their previous 2 matches and having won 4 of their last 5, but those games had cost the exiles, their resources chipped away in the front 5 so that 4 key players were missing on the day. There was a recall for former Skipper Rob Aird in the row, and the same for Andrew Preston at 7. Guildford are invariably a tough opponent, and by their own admission were about to produce their best 40 minutes for many years in the opening half.

The exiles kicked off playing away from the clubhouse in the opening half, but were soon on the defensive as another slow start saw too much ball and territory conceded to the visitors. On 7 minutes Aird received a fearful blow to the head, and with his nose streaming with blood was temporarily replaced by Dave Hill, the 38th player Cornish have used in the 8 league games so far this season. The blow affected Aird in an odd way – on Sunday he asked his girlfriend to marry him so lets hope he can recall that she actually said ‘yes’! Gs continued to dominate and a sharp break wide right was halted by a Stefan Duda tackle before Hill pinched the lineout for the ball to be cleared. Cornish were hampered on the few occasions they did enter Guildford territory by an inability to secure clean lineout ball, though they survived for Aird to reappear on 13 minutes. On 16 Guildford worked a 3 on 1 wide left but the final pass was forward and despite their dominance they had nothing to show until an exile was pinged for holding on and the Gs kicker gave his side the lead on 18. Back came the visitors for more, playing the ball tight and powering into the home 22 until Hamish Cuming pinched an offload and again the ball was cleared. On 21 Gs gained due reward for their effort, a rolling maul gathering real momentum to power over the exiles line for a try, a feat not often achieved against Cornish. Their kicker missed the conversion and now the exiles attacked with vigour, a chip ahead by fly half Rich McKeown seeing the Gs full back scramble the ball into touch only for the exiles to once again cough up key lineout ball when in a good position. On 34 a superb Gs kick forced Robin Heymann to hook the ball into touch just yards from his own line wide left, and after winning the lineout it took only 2 more phases for Guildford to force their way through an unusually pliant exiles d to crash across the line for another try, though this conversion also missed. Cornish simply couldn’t build phases, errors compounded by poor decision making. The half ended with a visitors attack halted by a steal on the floor by Simon Brading, though the home side could count themselves lucky to only be 13-0 down at the break. On that halftime whistle, that final act saw Cuming wheel away from the ruck in agony with what turned out to be a fractured elbow and ruptured bicep, him replaced by Rich Fisher.

Guildford clearly felt that they could now roll the maul at will, but this tactic actually rarely works against the exiles and the home side defended the early raids in the first few minutes of the second half well before suddenly clicking into life, much to the relief of their watching VPs. On 44 Cornish won a penalty for offside in midfield following a Tom Jacob snipe and Ian Keith break, but the well struck penalty flew wide left. With Tom Stock pinching lineouts and the scrum solid, Cornish finally won some quality possession for their potent back line, McKeown mixing the game up by sending a series of raking kicks deep into Gs territory. On 47 the ball was worked to Duda to arrow outside his man, the ball knocked on at the ruck inside the Gs 22, but warning bells beginning to sound in the visitors rearguard. Cornish replaced the battered Aird with Hill now and upped the ante again. On 51 McKeown sniped blind on half-way, him chipping the defence and regathering before offloading to the effervescent Nick Harlock on his shoulder. There can be few better full backs in the league at present, and Harlock stepped inside the wing and the full back to sprint clear and dive over for his 5th try in 6 league appearances to date, McKeown striking the conversion and the deficit down to 6. On 53 minutes Cornish lost Heymann to an injury, Phil Francis on for his debut on the right wing. With momentum now firmly in their favour, Cornish pinched a Gs scrum and lineout in quick succession, Jacob sniping down the right flank and linking with Harlock, who appeared to dive over wide right only to be called back for a foot on the touchline in the act of scoring. The Gs 10 was injured in the move as he sought to halt a rampaging Andrew McEwen and was replaced. Now Cornish worked a rolling maul, hooker George Johnson finding his range in the lineouts and Hill snaffling the ball. Twice Gs were pinged for pulling the maul down on the left flank, the second occasion bringing the ball into range of the excellent McKeown’s boot for him to reduce the arrears to 3. Forced to defend from deep, Gs could only clear their lines to halfway, and an ambitious Jacob drop-goal attempt from half-way line only just flew wide left on the hour. On 64 another Jacob kick flew deep and was knocked on by the visiting full back despite being under little pressure. To compound the felony, Skipper Dave Theobald extracted an offence from his opposite number at the scrum, the penalty from just outside the 22 a formality for the exiles in-form kicker, the game turned on its head at 13 all. Whether Cornish switched off or Gs upped their game is a moot point, for the at the restart Cornish knocked on and then simpy didn’t tackle with enough force to prevent another Gs forward from scrambling the ball onto the line for a converted score completely against the run of play, the 7 point lead a crucial one with 13 left. Now the visitors tactics changed, sensibly sliding a series of kicks deep into exiles territory to force the home side to attack from deep. On two occasions Harlock set up counter attacks that made huge ground, once linking with Graeme Smeaton wide right but the final pass hitting touch rather than the man, and on the other occasion linking with Francis to demonstrate just what a powerful addition he is to the Cornish squad, his speed taking outside a man before the ball was turned over on the floor a few phases later inside the Gs 22. With time running out, Gs won consecutive penalties as the home back row desperately attempted to win the ball. When Cornish finally did win it with the referee indicating the final play, the attempt to run the ball out of their 22 had calamitous consequences, a penalty conceded at a ruck inside their own 22 for the Gs 13 to drive the ball between the posts and take the losing bonus point away with it.

Guildford have a decent record in London 2 South-West in recent seasons, last season only seeing their play-off hopes evaporate on the final day. They are still a side you would expect to be in the top few at the shake up, and deserved their win on the day. It was much appreciated that they brought a bus for their 1s and 2s to enjoy the post match hospitality at The Telegraph, and we look forward to sampling the splendor of their new clubhouse in the New Year!

Cornish continue with their curate’s egg of a season. The club has never finished above 5th at this, the highest level they have ever played, and with 4 more games until the Xmas break have plenty of time to refocus on their goal of topping this placing. Your correspondent knows where his mind will be as he sips on a beer in Oban in west Scotland on Thursday night, and it wont be on the music emanating from the bagpipes in the pub…