On a pivotal afternoon for both clubs, London Cornish landed a comprehensive 32-7 win at Chobham to continue their steady improvement in London 1 South at Fowler’s Well on Saturday. The win saw the exiles cross 5 times, and despite a rare off day with the boot, was as clear cut as the score suggests with the injury hit hosts not having the team cohesion to threaten when they had good field position.
Cornish fielded the strongest squad they have managed to field all season, as the impact of their early season injury crisis recedes and new signings bolstered availability. Dan Leo and George Shirlaw returned to the back row, and Chris Smart at centre to give a far solid look to the side across the park.
On a dark, dank day, and after heavy morning rain, the game began on a great surface with the rain having ceased, Cornish playing down the hill in front of a huge festive crowd of some 350, who had been treated to a sumptuous pre match feed. The visitors were quickly on the board, a reset 5 metre scrum seeing Leo drive over for an unconverted try on 8 minutes after James La Broy was judged to have been held up from a rolling maul. With the slope and a slight breeze at their backs, Cornish might have used better use of the conditions to put boot to ball, and the early failure to do so gave Chobham plenty of field position, but they knocked on under pressure in midfield on a couple of occasions. On 13 minutes a Harry Somers carry took play into the Surrey sides half, and when they were pinged the resulting penalty flew just to the right of the posts. With understandable dominance in the tight (the home side had been forced to dig deep into their resources to field the required front row), the exiles could count on plenty of decent set piece ball, and when Sam Vaughan took a great line off George Kimmins, Chob were pinged for killing the ball, but a second penalty attempt flew wide, this time to the left. On 25 minutes the home side attacked up the left flank, and won a penalty kicked to 5 out. They could not shift their maul, but won a scrum v, which they worked blind only for Jamie Owen to intercept it, Rich Stephens to clear, hooker Jake Slade to pinch the lineout, then Kimmins to launch a howitzer to send Chob deep into their 22 to start all over again. With 32 on the clock, Nathan Hull snaffled an overthrown home lineout and thundered into the 22, popping a pass to the supporting Leo, who in turn hit Somers to take play to 5 out. Scrum half Rich Stephens was quickest to react, diving over the line and under the covering fire to score just to the left of the posts, Kimmins adding the extras. In the remaining minutes of the half, Vaughan produced a fine cover tackle out wide in front of the clubhouse to snuff out a dangerous looking counter, and Chob missed a kickable penalty from in front as Cornish lost a man to the bin on the stroke of half-time, the exiles turning round 12-0 to the good.
An early score in the 2nd half would be crucial, and with the visitors down a man and now playing up the slope into the breeze, Chobham would have been hopeful, but in the event the match was settled by the visitors with a 3 try blitz in the opening 15 minutes of the half. Stephens broke blind from the base of a scrum on halfway before feeding Smart who offloaded to Owen to dive over in the corner despite the efforts of 2 tacklers on 42 minutes: on 53 minutes, a first phase attack saw a picture book backs move see Kimmins hit Vaughan, who punched clean through the home d to draw the full back and send Matt Hakes in under the posts for a try converted by his Skipper; 2 minutes later and it was Leo who burst through, powering into the 22 from halfway and linking with Smart to send Kimmins diving over wide right for another try, though this was not improved. Leo, given MoM by the hosts, has already won The Heineken Cup, The Top 14 and the Premiership with Wasps and Perpignan, and he could be forgiven for not being as hungry for the game as he once was, but his impact continues to be huge and his performance here was outstanding. A 17 point burst had taken the game right away from a deflated Chob, now 29-0 down. Cornish withdrew Oli Low, Shirlaw and Owen after the second of these scores, Mark O’Leary, Matt Chambers and Jack Skerritt on in their places, probably the first time this season the exiles coaching team have been able to make wholesale tactical rather than injury based replacements. The home side continued to have moments of promise in the final quarter, but too often passes went forward or were spilt to end the moves. On 64 minutes a retreating Chob scrum saw Hull pick up and launch a thrust just outside the home 22, but a high tackle brought him to a halt, Kimmins driving the penalty over to take his side into a 32-0 lead. With both sides looking tired in the heavy ground, mistakes came aplenty in the closing minutes, and Chobham twice kicked penalties to the bottom right hand corner to launch mauls, but made no yardage or lost the lineout, Hull putting boot to ball with great effect on one occasion to clear his lines. With the referee indicating final play, one last effort from the home team saw them take a ploy out of Quins playbook the previous evening, a grubber in behind sitting up perfectly for their right wing to pounce and slide over for a well converted try, this score greeted by the loudest cheer of the day.
Your correspondent had hardly made it into the bar before one of the Chob faithful planted a pint in his hand, and was chatting away with the refs assessor when he was also provided with Christmas pud and custard by another of the home committee. Win, lose or draw this spirit typifies Chobham RFC, and it continues to be the case that this friendly club simply know how to be the best hosts off the pitch. Cornish know only too well how the rough period the Surrey side are currently encountering on the pitch can affect clubs, and we wish them well in regaining their strength in the near future.
Cornish continue their steady improvement, this their 3rd bonus point win in the last 5 league games, and their first away win in London 1 South this season. Their might be the odd blip along the way, but this new look squad is beginning to find its feet.