H & F 3s v LCRFC Chough's

What a difference a year makes! Last season, after our first 8 league games, we had lost 7 and were rock bottom and struggling to field a side…..

This year we sit in third place, joint on points with HAC in 2nd and with 5 wins from our first 8 games (2 of the losses by only 2 points). A great recruitment drive by everyone this year has allowed us to turn up with full benches and with squads full of talent!

***WARNING*** The Following Match Report is highly unlikely to be either accurate or entertaining.

Early kick-offs during Autumn international season are usually a struggle and 30 mins before the game some of us were getting a horrible sense of déjà vu from last year’s 12 man Chough’s squad, playing at the same ground. Although we had 4 drop-outs (fines queued up!) we still managed to kick-off with a full 15 with two subs on the bench.

Three season debuts for the Choughs in Prop JJ Moore, back row Josh Conlay and some guy called Simon Brading (looked like he could play a bit?). This takes our tally after 9 games up to 65 players!

The pre match entertainment for MMT Div 1 Round 8 were some considerate dog walkers who decided to let loose a pack of 10 dogs who proceeded to foul the pitch for the next 10 minutes.

Hammersmith kicked off to another powerful Choughs pack, some rugby stuff happened for a few minutes before they got clean ball to their backs who did a bit of running, broke a tackle and scored in the corner, conversion missed.

As per most of this season we were our own worst enemy at times combining some great work with some unnecessary offloads, poor passing and handling errors. Saying this, when we get it right we are more than a match for any team at this level. Our first came through a great tackle breaking run from Brading and combination supporting lines from Routledge, Jones and finally back inside for Fly Half Ross Harper to score under the posts. Converting his own Try, Cornish were up by 2.

After this first try, the choughs started to keep the ball in hand and inside Hammersmith’s half, the huge Cornish crowd (I think I counted 9….. including the physio) silencing the Hammers support within the ‘Stade Hurlingham’ and the injured Ali Springer directed the driving maul from 100 yards away. One of aforementioned mauls resulted in a 20 yard push and Aussie second row Ryan McGregor diving over the line for his first Try of the season.

After this, some more rugby happened, their 7 was quite good, their 8 went off injured, the weather was quite nice and finally for a knackered skipper the ref blew the whistle for half time. 8 – 12 to the Choughs.

Always thinking of the team the skipper removed the worst player on the pitch (himself) and replaced him with Josh Conlay at 7. Thom Lang also got himself a rest with Sam Price coming onto the field after a few weeks away.

In the second half, I had a drink, chatted with Springer, Somerset-How and Saunders on the side-line and some more rugby happened on the pitch….

What I can remember is they scored a dodgy try, Ross had recalibrated his kicking boot and hit a penalty and started putting in very good pressure on their back three. We had another trademark Chough’s driving maul walk 35 yards before Ryan managed to break again but run into his own man to hand the ball back over to them 10 metres from their try line.

On about 60 minutes, disaster struck. Shieldsy, back from injury needed to come off, as did James Tovey playing with one arm after a big hit. Already thinking about booze and watching the England game birthday boy Thom Lang and I had to return to the field and a full shuffle resulted in Lloyd Jones at 9 (loving it) and Brading reliving his past in the centres.

Wary that the crowd wanted to see a close game, I thought I’d put the most obvious hands in the ruck on our 22 right in front of the ref to give them a penalty, after a couple of phases and some very obvious crossing they scored in the corner and were up on the points by 3, game on with 15 to go.

Also wary of keeping the game tight Hammersmith quickly gave us a penalty of which Ross obliged. 18 -18, 8 mins to go.
Lloydy decided to add some further drama by knocking on the long restart but made amends after a turned over scrum he got the ball out beat his opposite number using those trademark snake hips and ran the ball down to Hammersmith’s 22 from our own.

With 2 mins on the clock Ross knew a long distance penalty would likely win the game for the choughs, he duly missed as the ball went short and was picked up by one of Hammersmith’s centres. With the ref calling last play Hammersmith opted to go for the win and try and run it from their own 22, getting all of 10 yards before giving away a penalty.

The grandstand finish was there now with Harper kicking for the win, which the Helston man duly did, the crowd went wild, sort of... 18 – 21 to the mighty chough’s!

MoM

Soskin (solid work all day)
Harper (16 Points for one of the 4 Cornishmen in the squad)

DoD

Springer (injured playing football!)
Kerensa (Physio for the opposition???)

#upthechoughs