Surrey Lock steers Cornish 2s to victory!

Match report provided by Joby Newton...

Fifteen Degrees in December!

With the Choughs game being postponed I joined a few Choughs and a Duke in bulking up the numbers for the 2s away at London Scottish. Conditions more akin to September would welcome us in Richmond.

During the well run warm-up by Sweeney it became clear there was a lack of backs in the squad and to everyone’s shock and amusement the 14 shirt was thrown towards an overweight Chough last spotted out there several years ago.

Strangely overlooked for pitch 1 in favour of London Scottish v Yorkshire Carnegie we setup on pitch 7 at the south east side of the clubhouse. With the coin flip lost we would be receiving the kick and running uphill but with the stiff breeze in our favour.

A well taken catch by Matt James started the game and Cornish flew out of the blocks with players making yards right across the pitch.

A ruck infringement in front of the posts gave Cornish the first chance for some points and Sam Williams obliged with the 3. 0-3 to Cornish.

Continuing where we left off the restart was taken again and Cornish were back on the front foot with Williams and Soar marshalling the pack and switching directions regularly. A run down the right wing was offloaded to Dave Soar making yards and whilst being tackled into touch managing to offload to the fat winger, from three yards I wasn’t being stopped and the try put us up by eight. Conversion wide right missed.

After the next restart Cornish managed to work the same right wing where we had been making ground. Good work by Williams and Fullback Dan Stocks opened the door for another Newton run and managing to break free the try line was getting dangerously close, a good chop tackle stopped me 10 yards from the line but the offload found Jamie Saunders, who evading a tackle, got the ball down for another 2s try. Difficult conversion missed. 0 -13 the score.

With the early points on the board Cornish started to lose their structure slightly trying too hard to do everything in one phase. Bater and Saunders bailing us out several times forcing penalties from turning over ball.

An isolated Cornish runner saw the ball turned over and a quick penalty allowed Scottish to break against a disorganised Cornish defensive line and one of their fast backs ran in for a try wide right. Conversion missed and the score was 5 – 13.

Around this time Stocksy trialled a new tackling technique of headbutting their Skipper in the balls which resulted in a short break with both men down. Joe Bough also aggravated an injury caused in a Russian dungeon earlier in the week and was replaced by The Surrey Lock, Pete Calvert

Although no more points were scored in the half credit to Scottish whose young side really started to put pressure on a Cornish side who looked like they would run away with it early on.

Half time brought strong words from the Skipper and one change with an injured Steve Wood being replaced by debutant John Beswick.

Chasing the first restart, Cornish knew they had to get back to the levels of the first 25 mins. With everyone fired up and wanting to make amends for the drop-off at the end of the first half we soon conceded a couple of penalties and allowed Scottish to run in another try…. Conversion missed 10-13.

With Scottish clearly eager and back in the game, things weren’t looking great for Cornish. In came the skipper though with some strong carries and working the hand-off. Shieldsy’s work with ball in hand fired up the forwards again and some big carries by the likes of Calvert (Surrey Lock), Dowie and Beswick continued to haul us back into the oppo 22.

I was a long way away but I think the next try went to Surrey Lock, Calvert and but some air between us again at 10-18.

Scottish again responded with some carries of their own and after another penalty (high count) was given away by Cornish they kicked 3 to put themselves back in touch at 13 – 18.

These were to be the last points for Scottish as Cornish managed to wrestle back possession. Another strong Shields carry followed by a couple of phases but Dan Stocks through wide left and he did well to get through his man and touch down. 13 -23

Shortly later Surrey Lock, Calvert was gifted his second try, a penalty was taken quickly from 5 yards out and little resistance was offered up for the Surrey Lock to touch down again. 13 -28

Scottish kept trying to get back in the game and could have got more if they could have given quicker ball from their half-backs to their outside backs. A fast Cornish back row put pressure on them all day.

Calvert’s second try had effectively won us the game but there was still one more try to come. Cornish had managed to get the ball back inside the Scottish 22 but the defence had done well to turn over and the ball was passed wide to clear. Unfortunately the Scottish winger had a d.o.t.d moment when his clearance kick went all of 5 yards and straight into my hands. With plenty of space outside me I opted instead to run inside and straight into a defender who completely sat me down. Luckily we got the ball back and quick work from Bater (I think) saw our 6th try wide right.

Shortly after was the whistle and an entertaining game saw the final score as 13 -33 to Cornish.

Team: Davidson, Worner, Dowie, Wood, Bough, Bater, Saunders, James, Williams, Soar, Read, Shields, Short, Newton, Stocks SUBS: Calvert, Beswick

Tries: Newton, Saunders, Calvert x 2, Stocks, Bater

Pen: Williams

M.o.M Shields, Saunders

D.o.t.D Bough (Giving away a penalty from Subs bench)