A truly awful day for London Cornish ended with a defeat that had the exiles watching alickadoos scouring the record books, a Cup match at Wembley LM RFC in the 80’s seeing the club succumb to a greater defeat than this 85-15 humiliation at the hands of Farnham RFC in London 1 South at the hosts Monkton Lane HQ on Saturday. However, in a wonderful response to the the shock of this result and galvanised by it, more players have put their hands up to play for the club this coming Saturday than at any point so far this season, the result of which will mean LCRFC will field 3 full XV’s for the first time since the pandemic began.
On a sticky dog of a pitch, Cornish opened up playing away from the nursery end and it did not take long for the pattern of the match to be set, Farnham over wide right inside 3 minutes as the exiles simply didn’t number up in defence, the conversion a formality. These opening minutes were as good as it got for the visitors, Fin Robjohn sending Adam Wheeler through a gap on halfway on 7 minutes and the ball worked wide to Kieran Rodda only for him to be scragged into touch on the 22. Though they cleared their lines, Farnham’s d was again pierced on 15 minutes when Rodda hit a great line through the centres and when the ball was recycled the home side were pinged for offside in midfield, Robjohn landing the penalty. Any pretence of the exiles taking the initiative was wiped out within seconds as the home side won the restart, broke tackles to canter upfield and found a gap for another converted try. Whilst Cornish built phases of play, they seemed incapable of preventing turnovers becoming tries throughout the match, Farnham adding more tries on 26 minutes and again on 34 when the exiles had the ball just a few feet from the home tryline after James La Broy , George Shirlaw, Ciaran Slater and the evergreen Pete Boele had combined in attack. This seemed to open the floodgates for at both the next restarts your correspondent could barely type his notes before looking up to see the home side cantering over for another converted try, the home side (who had not won at home all season) applauded from the field with a 38-3 lead at the break.
Cornish rang the changes at the break to try and stem the tide, Joel Williams, Dave Chalkley and Andy Munro-Lott on for Oli Low, Conor Pearce and Kieran Rodda, the latter suffering with a very nasty concussion. Initially, there was a positive response from the visitors with Robjohn spinning a long pass to give Chris Wright, returning from an injury suffered on the opening day of the season, who demonstrated why his finishing prowess has been such a big miss for Cornish in the intervening period, dashing down the left wing in front of the clubhouse to clear away from the cover for a try well converted by Robjohn. This good work was almost immediately undone, a lost ball on halfway finding its way to the Farnham right wing who was able to run in unopposed. Another spilt ball on 47 minutes and this time another Farnham player couldn’t believe his luck as he sped past the cover to dribble over for another converted try. Wright continued to pose problems for the home side and when he connect with La Broy, Boele and Mark Osei-Tutu on 52 minutes, the exiles found themselves at the foot of the home posts but were pinged for holding on to their great frustration. This time Farnham couldn’t clear their lines and when AML worked the ball blind, Jack Skerritt sent his fellow centre Mo Alothman crashing through a tackle for an unconverted try wide right (pictured). The restart to this one was a microcosm of the match itself, Boele, who had a fine match, claiming the kick and bashing his way into the home half, only for a loose pass out wide to be picked off for a simple run in under the posts, 56 minutes on the clock. Despite the best efforts of Wheeler, Shirlaw and Wright to make ground in the remaining minutes, the Cornish players had now begun to fall off tackles as the difference in conditioning between the two sides bit, many of the exiles players not having played much rugby at all this season, let alone at this level. 4 more tries were added in those closing minutes to add gloss to an already very glossy victory for Farnham, who cannot have wished for a more pliant opposition to break their duck at home than they met on this occasion.
Farnham haven’t given best easily to any side in London 1 South so far this season and were excellent hosts, the class touch of flying the flag of St Piran on a flagpole outside the clubhouse not lost on the many Cornish folk amongst our playing and supporting number on the day. It is more than likely we will meet again next season and our aim is to ensure a far more competitive match next time around!
Cornish made a change to the coaching set up following this match, with Paul Spivey stepping up to the Head Coach role as the club agreed with Corne Du Rand to bring forward his resignation from the end of the season. This result proves there is much work to do across many aspects of the playing side and the response of the players mentioned above suggests an appetite exists to get started!