No Point Complaining as Cornish Get Taranakied!

One man cannot a team make, but this result demonstrated that he can make one hell of a difference if he is of a standard well above anyone else on display on the day as two teams, previously separated by 1 point and 1 place in the league and with a very similar set of results so far this season, were country miles apart by the end of this match. On a day when everything that could go wrong for London Cornish did go wrong, the exiles suffered a heavy defeat at home to Sutton & Epsom at the wrong end of Regional 2 South-East. It was little consolation to the home side to learn afterward that the architect of their defeat was a lad on debut, fresh from the NPC where he plays for Taranaki alongside the likes of All Blacks Beauden, Jordie and Scott Barrett, him helping himself to a hat-trick of tries whilst setting up a couple more of his new teams 7 in the match. Coupled with the exiles losing Tony Pellow to what turned out to be a broken bone in his face in the opening minute of the match, lock David Chalkley with an ankle sprain just a few minutes later, top scorer George Bromage with a cut to his leg, centre Kyle Hughes with a dislocated finger and fly half Mike Edworthy suffering a recurrence of an ankle problem that meant he couldn’t kick for most of the match but had to play on with limited mobility as his side had used all their replacements, this was a bad day at the office for Cornish and one to draw a line under!
On a perfect surface given the recent torrential rain, the exiles began playing towards the clubhouse in the opening half, former Penryn front row Pellow replaced immediately. A scrum on the exiles 22 followed, but a charge down landed squarely in the hands of an onrushing visiting forward, a quick interchange between a couple of players seeing them cross for a converted try with barely 2 minutes on the clock. Cornish responded immediately, scrum half Fin Tweedie taking a quick tap just inside the Sutton 22 and weaving his way up to and over the line (pictured), Edworthy levelling up the score with the extras. A few minutes later, and with Mark Osei-Tutu now on for Chalkley to have his ankle strapped, the Sutton kicker landed a penalty to retake a lead his side would not cede again in the game. 5 minutes later the visiting 13 served notice of his talents with a scintillating run from deep following an exile clearing kick being touched in flight, him taking the ball to the house for a converted try, 16 gone and Sutton 17-7 ahead, their 10 extending that lead with a penalty just 2 minutes later. Back came Cornish, buoyed in the opening half by tireless carrying from the likes of Adam Wheeler, Skip Alex Davey and centre Pete Brogden, penalties won on the floor on 22 and 28 minutes resulting in one Edworthy 3 pointer, the other kick sliding wide of the right hand upright as the fly-half’s ankle weakened. 10 points down with time almost up on the half, the lack of a fit kicker now really bit as a touchfinder failed in its mission, the kick worked to the 13 who returned it with interest, quick ball recycled and the try scored wide right despite a fine covering tackle by former Redruth back Ben Boorman nearly halting the attack, the extras added for a half-time score of 27-10 to Sutton.
Any semblance of a comeback was scotched right at the start of the 2nd half, a poor kick chase seeing the visiting 13 evade a series of half-hearted tackles down the left flank to waltz clear for a converted try. Bromage was replaced by Ciaran Johnston forcing a few changes in the backline at this point. From the restart, a fine tackle by Pete Brogden on halfway enabled centre partner Hughes to effect a turnover, and Johnston linked with Boorman to send Tweedie away down the right wing only for the Taranaki flyer to cut him down 5 out. When Sutton launched a maul following the lineout, Chalkley wrestled the ball from the carrier and won a penalty, kicked to 5 out in Terry’s Corner. Tom Carr took the lineout, Cruz drove to the line and Davey twisted over for the try, converted by Johnston, the score now 34-17 to the visitors, Chalkley finally replaced for good by Osei-Tutu. Back came Sutton, buoyed by the exiles falling off tackles, a couple of forwards combining to send one of their number over by the posts for another converted try. On 65 minutes their erstwhile flyer burst into the 22 and seemingly bounced up from a tackle on the run, him able to stroll over for his third and his teams 6th try, though this one was not improved. With Cornish seemingly spent and the visitors attacking at will, only a fine last ditch Johnston tackle saw the danger temporarily averted. When the Surrey side launched a maul at the clearance, they were held up over the line. In the gathering gloom, the exiles began to win penalty after penalty, eventually Johnston wriggling out of a tackle on halfway, skipping over another and arrowing away to the far corner where a horsecollar tackle took him down, the referee binning the miscreant and awarding the penalty try. This passage of play saw Hughes suffer his injury, Bromage limping back on. Sutton added a further goal 2 minutes later and all that was left in the game was whether Cornish could land the bonus point try. Despite great carries from Wheeler, Mackay, Davey and Cruz the exiles could not fashion a final score, them a well beaten side at the whistle.
It will be interesting to see how long Sutton can hold on to their young star given his heritage and the upward curve of his career, but there is no doubt his team around him were lifted by this presence, an early Christmas present for the club if you like. A decent bunch off the pitch as ever, we wish them well and look forward to the return in the New Year.
Cornish will have better days than this one and will need to bounce back quickly – that work starts at training on Wednesday!