League leaders Brighton produced ample demonstration of just why they lead the way in London 1 South at the REMPF on Saturday, with a clinical demonstration of how to punish teams mistakes, as they registered a 6 try to 2 victory over the exiles. Cornish played their full part in a well-contested match, which was played in the right spirit throughout, but gave best to a side who ran the ball at every opportunity.
A much changed Cornish squad from the previous weeks win saw Jake Slade return at hooker, and a new back row combination of Ian Dowie, the returning Chris Anstey and debutant Kiwi back row Nathan Hull. In the backs, Tom Havercroft moved into centre to allow Matt Hakes to return out wide. On a damp, overcast day, with a stiff breeze blowing across the pitch, the exiles played towards the clubhouse in the opening period. Unfortunately, the home side all stood and watched as the kick off landed, then conceded a penalty at the resultant maul, gifting an early lead to their vocal visitors, who would celebrate every similar moment in a similar vein. The response was quick, a high intensity series of bullocking runs from the exiles forwards seeing a high tackle on scrum half Rich Stephens win a penalty, landed by his Skipper George Kimmins. Just 60 seconds later, and following a clearance kick going out on the full, as a miscommunication in defence saw a home defender fly up out of the line inside their 22, Blues through the gap in a flash to score an unconverted try. On 17 minutes, following a typical Stephens break down the right flank, supported by full back Dan Phoenix, the visitors lost a man to the bin for another high tackle, this time on wing Jamie Owen. For 5 minutes now, Cornish launched a series of mauls and scrums pushing Brighton closer and closer to their line, but with the line at their mercy the ball was spilled, and 15 seconds later it was over the exiles try line wide right for another unconverted try. Havercroft was injured in this play, Rory Stanyard in on the wing and Hakes moving into centre. With Cornish making huge yardage every time they rolled a maul and very dominant in the tight, but Blues backs looking dangerous whenever in space, the game developed a pattern. On 35 minutes, Brighton countered from a loose kick, one missed tackle and a strong running line seeing the visitors under the posts for a converted try. With time almost up on the half, a great Hakes run saw the visitors caught offside in midfield, but the penalty flew wide, the visitors 20-3 up at the break.
Anstey came off at the break to be replaced by Matt Chambers, himself making his first appearance of the season for the exiles, slotting in at 8 to allow Hull to move to his favoured position of open-side. Cornish started the 2nd period well, Harry Somers and James La Broy taking play well into the Blues 22, before Kimmins dropped a goal with a penalty advantage. Any hope that this would see a comeback from the home side was quickly extinguished on 47 minutes when they conceded a very soft try from a lineout ploy down the narrow side, weak tackling again to blame, and the try again unconverted. Oli Low was withdrawn at this point for another returnee in Mark O’Leary, though this would bring no respite for the visitors in the tight. On 49 minutes, Sam Vaughan broke the defensive line just inside his half and spun the ball to Stanyard. Turning on the afterburners, the youngster sped around his man and chipped the ball beyond the cover and kicked ahead, only to be given a mighty shove away from the line of the ball. Penalty awarded, Blues wing binned. Cornish elected to scrum, and twice won penalties as they turned the screw 5 out before Chambers picked and drove through a tackle only to be held up over the line. Finally, a the next scrum Stephens, who scored in both corresponding matches last season, angled his run between the visitors fly half and centre to place the ball over the line for an unconverted try. 3 of these points were needlessly returned when the exiles were rightly pinged for not rolling away from a ruck on 57 minutes, the score now 28-11 to Blues. On the hour mark, Cornish produced a fine passage of play, repeated phases seeing Brighton caught offside. Kicking to 10 out down the right hand side, a maul drove the visitors back before Kimmins dummied his way into enough space to reach out and plant the ball over the line under the nose of the referee, converting his own try to reduce the deficit to 10 with 18 minutes remaining on the clock. Once again, no sooner had they got themselves back in the game, Cornish coughed up a needless penalty, which was easily converted from bang in front. In the remaining minutes of the match, and as Cornish desperately countered from deep, they twice coughed up the ball in decent field position for their hungry visitors, who needed no second invitation to score 2 more tries, one of which was converted to give them a 43-18 win.
Brighton are clearly an ambitious and well resourced club this season, and their side bore little resemblance from the one from the corresponding match last season (only 7 of the 18 from the respective programmes). They play a similar game to Civil Service, and it did them no harm last season. It will be interesting to see how they cope against the bigger packs in this league in wet weather, but they will certainly be up there when the prizes are given out at the seasons end.
As Cornish transition from the squad responsible for the unbeaten season a couple of years back, they continue to test new combinations out, and to recruit on the fly. The 2s result on the day saw more new players given game time, and some of these will feed through to the 1s in the coming weeks. It’s a decent league, and testing every single Saturday!