London Cornish came within an ace of landing a shock win against the seemingly bang in form and well resourced Camberley at the Richardson Evans Memorial Playing Fields in London 1 South on Saturday. The exiles lead for most of the rain soaked match, and only gave best 2 minutes from time to a controversially awarded unconverted try.
The well-documented phalanx of injured exiles players was augmented on the eve of the match by hooker Will Sheridan, who did not pass the RTP protocols, and centre Joe Donnelly, whose knee had not recovered in time. With Dan Leo also unavailable, it was another much changed Cornish side that took the field. On the plus side, and crucially only for the second time this season, the exiles first choice half back pairing of Rich Stephens and Skipper George Kimmins were back available. Cornish have a decent recent record against Camberley, and a style that seems to nullify much of what the Surrey side try to achieve, and though many of the pre-match chat was about by how much Cam would win by, the exiles Head Coach Corne Du Rand had selected a side with a very specific gameplan, which they carried out for most of the match to great effect.
Cornish played away from the clubhouse in the opening period, and were under the cosh for much of the opening quarter, but Cam were met by stern defence at every turn, and in response knocked on plenty of ball or were called back for a series of forward passes. A constant theme throughout the match was the way in which the visitors send a man in over the top of their ball carries at every opportunity, and on 21 minutes this clear tactic saw them rightly pinged just a few feet inside their half. Kimmins stepped up and launched a howitzer of penalty, it flying between the posts with plenty of room to spare (pictured). 3 minutes later, and with their scrum under real pressure, Cam knocked on and then played the ball in front of the errant back, another long range penalty landed by Kimmins to double his sides lead. 6 minutes after that, great carries by the vibrant Mark O’Leary and powerful Jack Vosper took play into the Cam 22, and this time they were pinged for a high tackle, Kimmins again extending the lead to 9, the exiles growing in belief with every passing minute. Cornish launched a series of bombs onto the visiting back 3, and with a fine kick chase frequently drove play back out of striking range, carriers tied down and tangled up in a mass of arms. Cam finally released the shackles on 33 minutes, and when they broke clean through down the left flank it appeared as though the ball carrier thought he could not be caught, but he did not reckon with the turbocharged exiles wing Rory Stanyard, who hunted the visiting flyer down, bringing him to ground 5 out, the extra man outside ignored until too late as Stephens smashed him into touch and the danger cleared after Steve Wood claimed the lineout. On a few occasions in this opening period, Cam eschewed kickable penalties to set up rolling mauls, but so few sides succeed with these tactics against Cornish, and on every single occasion they tried it on this day, they were rebuffed, O’Leary producing a shuddering tackle 5 out to force yet another knock-on to signal the whistle for half-time.
9-0 to the good at the break, the exiles would have to contend without hooker Will Murray for a period as he underwent an HIA, Dave Theobald on as stand-in hooker. The new front row won an immediate scrum penalty in the opening few minutes of the half, but lost their lineout when well placed. On 46 minutes, and after winning 2 consecutive penalties to gift them field position, Cam finally struck, when their 7 hit a great line off the 10 to smash through the d and round to the posts for a converted try, 9-7 now the score. From the comments on the touchline, the visiting support clearly expected the floodgates to open from this point, but they were sorely disappointed. Their backline won plenty of ball, but with the exiles up in their faces, they knocked on plenty of it too, and when able to get it wide simply threw forward passes, Matt Hakes twice forcing the fumble when the ball came down his flank. Cornish may not have seen as much ball as they did in the opening period, but with O’Leary, Oli Low, Ian Dowie, Ali Springer, Stephens, Vosper, and La Broy shackling their visiting counterparts, the game developed into an old school arm wrestle. Murray returned on 54 minutes for the tiring Low, and on 58 the exiles launched a great rolling maul from the Cam 10 metre line, only to drop the ball as the maul entered the 22. Another visiting attack was called back for a forward pass on 64, and with their frustration growing the visitors then got pinged for backchat to the referee, Cornish withdrawing the cramping Springer for Josh Holmes at this point. On 71 minutes Cam won a kickable penalty, and aware that time was running out they elected to kick for the posts, but their lad did not have Kimmins range or accuracy and drove his attempt wide of the right hand upright, a growing sense that this might not be their day beginning to dawn on the visiting support. Another attack on 75 saw the Surrey side forced into touch 5 out, and when they won back the lineout, the home side crucially lost a man to the bin for a team card. With 3 minutes left, a twice reset scrum V saw the exiles have to replace the ailing Murray with Low. Twice the scrum wheeled round, and on the third set the ball was worked to a Cam back in a static position. As he stepped, he ran full into one of his own players who in turn backed into the referee, both impacts blocking would be exiles defenders, a path clearing for the lad to simply run over for the game winning try virtually untouched to great consternation from the home team, the conversion flying wide but the visitors now 3 points to the good. It said everything about how the afternoon had gone for them that Cam were happy to simply slam the ball out to end the game when the final play was called.
For the neutral (and there were a few, despite the inclement weather), this was a compelling game. The Cam DoR was graceful in victory and knew how close to losing this one his charges had come, but they got there in the end and that’s the important fact. Thanks to him and to the 2 young lads the visitors brought along, who were a credit to their club, helping with many aspects of the pitch set up, and in cleaning the changing rooms post match. This was a real test of Cam’s credentials, and they will regain their fluency pdq.
Cornish take plenty from the game, and are proving a particularly tough nut to crack on home turf, despite having used 36 players in the 6 league games to date. Credit goes to the whole squad and coaching team for the way they approached this one – despite the back to back defeats, spirit remains very high in the exiles camp, and with good reason…