On a great day for the spectators, but a tough day at the office for the coaching teams, London Cornish eventually succumbed to a narrow defeat at the hands of Old Reigatians in a London 2 South-West thriller at Park Lane on Saturday. The home side edged the game by 3 goals, 2 tries and 2 penalties to 3 goals, one try and 2 penalties as the final winner was in doubt right up to the final whistle. The teams remain in 4th and 5th place respectively in the division, and are likely to do battle again next year as a couple of standard bearers for the level.
This game had twice been rearranged, and this caught out players at both clubs who had made alternative arrangements. For Cornish, this meant Skipper and tighthead Dave Theobald was absent along with Surrey county lock Pete Calvert, scrum half Tom Jacob, centre Iain Short and top try scorer Nick Harlock. The DoR has talked about steadily building the depth required to make a challenge at this level, and this defeat demonstrated that Cornish are not there yet, amply demonstrated by the fact that they were forced to play hooker Will Carew-Gibbs at 9, though in fairness he proved an excellent deputy.
A beautiful, sunny day saw the exiles open playing towards the prefab changing rooms in the car park, Reigatians sumptuous new clubhouse now merely a few weeks away from occupancy. The tight head conundrum was solved by a call up for former Skip James Turnbull, the Truro man making his first start of the season. Cornish opened well, a Graeme Smeaton break piercing the first line defence and breaking into the R’s 22. Carew-Gibbs hit no 8 Simon Brading on a pop, and he crashed over the line only for the ball to be deemed held up. Frustratingly, the visitors took a wrong option at the scrum for a player to be isolated and the ball cleared at the resultant penalty. Gradually, Reigatians gained territory and on 11 minutes won a penalty deep inside their visitors 22 virtually in front of the posts, but their kicker badly shanked the ball right of the posts. Within 2 minutes, they had opened their score and within 5 had stretched out to a potentially game winning lead. First up, Cornish made a complete horlicks of a standard kick chase just inside the Reigatians half. A talented back line and one missed tackle later and the exiles were paying the ultimate price, the home right wing scooting over for a try wide right, their kicker still not finding his range as the conversion drifted left of the posts. At the restart, Cornish were pinged for being in front of the kicker but the referee oddly awarded a free kick to Reigatians – as Cornish debated the award, the home side tapped and went, quick hands easily piercing a fractured defence and the home side able to saunter over virtually unchallenged for a converted score. With alarm bells now sounding amongst the visitors supporters and at least one coach, Cornish now contrived to lose their own put in at a scrum, then get pinged for an early engage at the reset. It took a huge Ian Keith tackle in front of his own posts to end the attack, the ball dislodged and cleared by fly half Rich McKeown. The tackle seemed to galvanise Cornish, a driving Mark Osei-Tutu run on 24 minutes only ending with a knock on, a Reigatians player cut during the affray and a blood replacement on. Now it was the home side struggling to clear their lines, and when they were penalized for hands in the ruck a couple of minutes later, the exiles kicked the ball halfway into their 22 down the right wing. Hooker George Johnson hit lock Tom Stock and set the maul, inexorably driving Reigatians over their line for Johnson to claim the try, McKeown driving his conversion into the far side post and over for the extra 2. Control of the match had now swung completely to the exiles, and within 90 seconds Carew-Gibbs dummied his way through on half-way, linking with Osei-Tutu and then Turnbull, who slammed into the Reigatians d and drove on to the 22. Carew-Gibbs now hit Keith and he drove to within 10 feet of the try line, from where 3 pick and drives by lock Phil Ridsdale, Johnson and Brading enabled Stock to polish off a fine passage of play by crashing over from close range half way in to the left hand upright. McKeown struck another fine kick and Cornish had turned the match on its head now leading by 14-12. For the next few minutes Reigatians attacked again until on 35 minutes their hosts forced them into touch on the 10 metre line inside the exiles half. What followed handed the initiative right back to Reigatians, the exiles jumper completely missing the throw in, which flew straight to the home sides largest unit to hammer into the visitors 22. As the defence hurried to reform, quick hands was all it took to send the R’s right wing around the outside and round under the posts for a converted try. Worse was to follow just prior to the break, Cornish not numbering up at a tap penalty on half way, and offloading again the key as weak tackling allowed another try to be conceded just to the right of the posts, though this conversion attempt was again a poor one. Suddenly, from having brought themselves right back into the game at 14-12, the exiles were again staring down the barrel 24-14 behind at the break.
Attentively listening to their coaches half time promptings, Cornish played a much tighter game in the second period and gained instant reward. Right wing Stuart Bell stole the restart and dashed up the right wing. The ball was recycled several times at close quarters, Bond, Ridsdale, Turnbull, Stock, Johnson, and Turner all involved as the ball was worked right to left into the 22, before Osei-Tutu hit a great line to smash through the defence and clear away to score to the left of the posts, McKeown converting again to reduce the deficit to 3 points. Frustratingly, 3 of these preciously earned points were handed straight back at the restart, a high tackle smack in front of the posts gifting Reigatians an easy 3. However, the close quarter action was beginning to heat up the two packs, and the home side lost a player to the bin for an offence on 46. With the home scrum now coming under pressure, they failed to control a ball on their own put in on 50 minutes, Brading fly hacking it on into the home 22 where Turner and Bell forced the home full back over his own line for a scrum V. As Cornish worked the ball into midfield at the set piece, a Reigatian hand was spotted in the till, and McKeown reduced the arrears again with the penalty. Cornish made a change now, bringing Dave Hill on for Ridsdale at lock. With Turner and Brading pinching ball on the floor and Carew-Gibbs marshalling his forwards well, a steady stream of ball worked its way back the exiles way for a 5 minute spell until full back Robin Heymann danced blind on half way, Bell hitting a great line to burst through and feed Keith motoring up on his outside to canter over for the bonus point try that gave his side the lead, the conversion missed but Cornish now 29-27 to the good. Winning a tap penalty on 62 for an early engage, Carew-Gibbs took it quickly, spun out of a tackle and was only brought to ground on the R’s 22, only for an offload to be knocked on in great field position. Keith had injured a shoulder during this passage of play, Luke Spells on at 12 in a straight swap. 6 minutes later and a reverse of that action saw Reigatians take their own quick tap, then win a full penalty smack in front of the posts, the kick scooped over and the lead back with the Surrey side. Cornish replaced Turnbull with veteran Gregg Quixley at tight head, and then won a penalty inside their own half for holding following a strong defensive effort from left wing Stefan Duda from a kick. Winning the lineout, they rolled the maul then hit a series of phases to work the ball infield. Spells smashed his way over the gainline and then quick hands put one of the exiles backs into some clear water behind the R’s defence; Cornish had worked their way back into the game playing a tighter game, but sensing a chance for a match winning score, here they tried a final offload that could have won them the game. Instead, and to their horror, the ball was knocked on and the home back 3 countered at pace. With all of the exiles backs involved in the attack, the home right wing comfortably outpaced the cover and engineered a 2 on 1, which he finished with aplomb to complete his hat-trick to the joy of the home support, the conversion putting the home side out of reach at 37-29 and only 4 minutes left. In keeping with this topsy-turvy match, Cornish did not give it up, winning the restart and then pick and drives hammering the way into the home half, Stock twice involved before a Carew-Gibbs snipe and another crashing Spells run found the home side offside wide left. McKeown had kicked superbly all day, and this crucial kick would bring the exiles within 1 scores range, providing a minimum 2 points if the score remained the same. With an unerring swing of the boot, the Ulsterman took his side past the 30 point mark, Cornish now back within range. At the restart the exiles snaffled the ball again, Hill expert in these situations and Duda quickest to react when the ball hit the deck. Hammering away at close quarters, the exiles attempted to repeat the dose of their opening play of the half, Brading at the heart of the action as he drove his side on. However, just as they appeared to have the home side back tracking, the ball was knocked on for the final whistle to sound for a jubilant Reigatians.
These two sides have built up strong relations over the past decade of league and cup matches, and this match will settle favourably amongst the archive, the two sets of players and officials mixing well post match as they watched the 6 Nations. The battle for top 5 places may have a few twists and turns yet as Twickenham are also likely to have a say, but whatever the outcome, when the fixtures are released for next season, make a date to watch both the Reigatians v Cornish encounters – you won’t be disappointed!