Indiscipline Costs Cornish Win at Windsor!

London Cornish’s failure to secure ball in the 2nd half of this Regional 2 Thames match at Windsor ultimately cost them victory as the exiles lineout woes combined with a lack of discipline saw the home side deservedly sneak home by the narrowest of margins. It will be little consolation to Cornish that they landed 2 bonus points as their potent backs would surely have delivered the goods had they had even a modicum of ball with which to work in that last 40.
Despite having a number of backs returning to action on the day, a familiar refrain saw the exiles lose 2 forwards to chest infections on the morning of the match, forcing another late rejig and removing their main maul defusers in Will Carew-Gibbs and Niko Mirosevic-Sorgo. Joel Williams was called up from the 2s to play at 8, Adam Wheeler moved into the row and Ed Grassby given a run at 7. Playing away from the clubhouse on a decent pitch on a cold, overcast afternoon Cornish indiscipline struck from the very first whistle, a series of players well in front of the kicker spotted by the referee. Dominant in the tight throughout, whenever the exiles attacked in the opening minutes they were also called for sealing off undoing much of the yardage gained by Mike McEwen, Ed McCord and Robbie Mackay. Sporadic Windsor attacks saw Cornish counter from deep on a couple of occasions, Ben Boorman and George Bromage serving notice that they had the ammo to carve holes in the home d. On 15 minutes the visitors knocked on a lineout on the Windsor 22. At the scrum the home 9 darted blind and sent his fly half away. A couple of excellent long passes from left to right saw their right wing given space to arrow away and dive over wide right for a fine try to cheer the Windsor support, the score unconverted. Cornish responded immediately, George Jackson fending off would be tacklers from the base of a scrum on half-way to take play deep into the Windsor 22 from where McEwen picked up to drive over wide right, the score level after this conversion into the wind went wide. Now with the momentum, a Mackay break down the left wing opened up the home d but the last pass was spilled with the line begging. On 30 minutes Cornish struck following a decent passage of play, Pete Brogden making the initial incision over half way before quick ball gave Mike Edworthy the chance to dummy his way through a gap down the narrow side and stretch away from the cover to plant the ball over the line wide left (pictured), him unable to improve his own score but his side now 10-5 to the good. Better was to follow as Cornish launched another offensive within 3 minutes, Matt Hakes joining the line from the blind side wing to create the extra man before the ball was worked to Bromage wide right, him stepping twice to beat the cover from just inside the Windsor half and take the ball to house round to the posts, Edworthy stretching the lead out to 17-5 with 5 left in the half. This passage of play ended Ed Grassby’s involvement in the match, a recurrence of his ankle injury meaning another period of convalescence, Francis Birch replacing him. Cornish had to hold out until the half to consolidate their lead, but first they kept gifting possession back to their grateful hosts for a series of avoidable offences, each of which saw them give up territory. Windsors main mode of attack is their rolling maul and in the closing minutes they launched one against a decidedly lightweight exiles pack following a high tackle, the maul creeping towards the line before one of their number broke off to crash over, the score unconverted by the half-time whistle seeing the exiles 17-10 ahead.
Once again conceding a penalty at the restart, Cornish saw Windsor launch their offloading game to break clear down the narrow side to score with their first attack of the 2nd half, again not converted but the deficit reduced to 2. With momentum see-sawing the exiles responded immediately, McEwen and Wheeler galloping thru gaps over half-way before Birch connected with Joe Lynch to dive over for a try by the posts converted by Edworthy, Cornish out to 24-15 lead. Another score now might well have put the game to bed but try as they might, the exiles simply could not gain any set piece ball despite dominating in the tight, Lynch, Tony Pellow and Dave Theobald as solid as any front row combo in the league. Gradually being forced to defend deeper and deeper as they conceded penalty after penalty, the visitors could not get near the home lineout and now began coughing up their own, knocking on the few occasions they did win ball. On 60 minutes the exiles finally lost a forward to the bin for another high tackle, Windsor fully aware that this reduced the defensive ballast in front of them further. Kicking a pen to 5 out, their maul was illegally sacked but a quick tap saw them crash over for their bonus point try, again not converted but now they were only 4 points down. Sensing their moment with their visitors still down a man, they ran everything, eventually sending their left wing over at the corner flag to take the lead at 25-24 with barely 10 left on the clock, Cornish ringing the changes to try and retake the momentum. In these closing minutes Windsor managed the game well, pick and drives taking up time even if not gaining much yardage. With time almost up the home side sent an injudicious punt down the middle of the pitch, where it was fielded by Boorman. The speedster set off, beating the initial cover before linking with Hakes to carry tacklers with him into the home half. As he hit the turf the referee called maul so the home side sensibly ensured the ball did not re-emerge, them having the put in at the scrum. Despite a huge shove from the exiles, they could not prevent the ball being won and thumped into touch for the final whistle to sound to great jubilation from Windsor, them deserving their 1 point win for their greater show of discipline throughout the match.
This win for Windsor keeps them in touch with the sides above them in Regional 2 Thames and also demonstrates that they have the capacity to score tries in a range of different ways, their opener a peach of a try that even the most one-eyed Exile would struggle not to appreciate. The Berkshire side are great hosts and their pitch at the foot of Windsor Castle surely one of the most picturesque settings in the game – we wish them well in their ongoing quest.
Cornish need to learn from this because this definitely felt like 3 points lost. The club have called for reinforcements from Gods Country and beyond so expect to see the return of a familiar face or two in the closing weeks of 2022!