LONDON 3 SOUTH-WEST
22/09/07
WINCHESTER v LONDON CORNISH

Winchester 34 - London Cornish 0

Take a close look at the sequence of scores that went against Cornish when first promoted in to the regional leagues a few seasons back - they bear a close relation to those being experienced again now as the exiles tumbled to defeat by 2 goals and 4 tries to nil at the Nunns Road home of Winchester. With the RWC proving a major distraction and injuries exacerbating the problem, a number of clubs in London 3 S/W are experiencing real difficulty in fielding competitive sides, noteably those closer to London from where Paris is within easy reach. This musn't mask the fact that Cornish played poorly and their hosts competently in a division where it has become quickly apparent that there are only a very few clubs capable of sustaining a 22 game promotion challenge. Winchester may well be among them, finding strength in depth being key to their chances.

Nunns Road is a purpose built rugby ground, the facilities are excellent though the pitch is not, arguably the worst surface Cornish have encountered in the past two seasons. With some 10 changes from the side defeated the previous week, Cornish actually began the game well and for 30 minutes the winner of the match could not be called. Mike Harvey looked very sharp on the right wing, and it took fine covering tackles to prevent him breaking clean through on a couple of occasions in the first 10 minutes. However, as the game drew on so Cornish began to make a mess of their set pieces and the link between the forwards and backs all but fell apart. Against a very confident Winchester side, boasting a 9 as good as any we have seen at this level, such profligacy was always going to be punished. So it proved - Winchester scored 3 tries in the 10 minutes before half time, the first two direct from Cornish set pieces and the last from a mishit dropout, though the last was made worse by a series of uncharacteristically weak tackles from the visitors. During this period, Cornish lost hooker Mike Allewell to a groin strain, Will Carew-Gibbs the perfect replacement on 34 minutes. Though frequently healing good quality ball to the back of the scrums, a flu ridden Jonty Saunders and scrum half Rich Gregory were struggling with the referee's interpretation of the offside line as time and again the oppo back row and scrum half broke up play. When the ball did get wide, it was so slow runners had often overrun stand in fly half Dan Pollard forcing him to duck and weave like a boxer! On a couple of occasions late in the half loose kicking gave Cornish the chance to counter, and full back Tim Mucken cut some great lines through the retreating home defence, but the chances were snuffed out and the ball cleared. It was a dispirited exiles side who greeted the half time whistle, 0-15 down after all 3 conversion attempts had missed.

Cornish rang an early change at the start of the second half with Pete Drewett coming on in place of the ailing Saunders, John Hollick switching to no 8. Hollick had seen what had been happening at the base of the scrum and controlled the ball well to catch the errant Winchester back row offside at a scrum. The ball was kicked to the corner, and for some 5 minutes the visitors battered away to try and close the gap. Slow ball screamed out to be turned into quick ball, but instead was spun wide and a looping pass was intercepted by a grateful home back to scoot the length of the pitch and put the result beyond doubt at 0-22. Now Winchester could relax and hold onto the ball to ease down the clock. They were repeatedly aided by an eccentric performance by the referee, whose lack of control at the rucks finally blew up in his face when a home player making no effort to roll away was inadvertently shooed above the shoulder, the boot costing Cornish a player in the bin. Despite this, Cornish fashioned a chance for wing Jim Strover to finish a decent move on the hour but the ball was spilt and the chance lost. With almost no ball reaching experienced centres Damian Stirrett and Dave Furze, the visitors could not strong any phases together, locks Rob Webster and Pete Calvert at least managing 80 minutes each for the first time this season. A final change saw Steve Lewis replace Harvey, another enjoying a first start this season, no sooner than the final replacement coming on than open side Rod Petre suffering an ankle injury, though he soldiered on. Winchester managed a couple more scores in the final 15 minutes, one of which was converted to leave the final score 0-34.

A dispiriting day for all at LCRFC, the 2s having lost and significantly the 3s having had to concede a walkover. The club has experienced 6 consecutive years of highs and as mentioned above, these dont come about without tough periods along the way. No-one will shirk the challenges ahead, and it was encouraging to see the debates rage long into the evening at the clubs Telegraph Inn HQ on Saturday. There is a cussedness about us West Country folk, and we will be calling on that cussedness in the weeks ahead!

LCRFC – Tim Mucken, Mike Harvey (Steve Lewis), Dave Furze, Damian Stirrett, Jim Strover, Dan Pollard, Rich Gregory, Jonty Saunders (Pete Drewett), Rod Petre, John Hollick, Rob Webster, Pete Calvert, Ben Shribman (Capt.), Mike Allewell (Will Carew-Gibbs), Ben Wheeler.


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