Cobham stretch unbeaten run with bonus point away win at London Cornish

After a week's break Cobham resumed their league campaign away against London Cornish (28 February). This is always a welcome fixture, not least because of family connections the Davison family have with London Cornish. Congratulations to Cornish Director of Rugby, Dickon Moon for whom this is his 23rd consecutive season. Cornish had come very close to upsetting Trinity in their last match, losing 27-25, and Cobham knew from their previous return fixtures this season that the opposition have upped their game. Ben Joyce was able to welcome Joe Patient for his debut off the bench, having coached him at Under 5s.

Cobham kicked off and for the first ten minutes both teams sparred with each other, but it needed tackles from Tom Davison and Joe Harker to prevent Cornish stealing a lead. It was a poach from Harker that provided Cobham with the possession for Saunders to launch the backline. Bond set up Savill to offload to Burnett and eventually Redknapp to touch down in the corner for the opening score (0-5).

Cornish responded when fly half Mike Edworthy evaded the defence and sent the ball down the line for winger Daniel Nash to crash over. Edworthy added the extras to put Cornish in front (7-5) at the end of the opening quarter. Hooker Andrew Murphy came off for an injury and Patient got his opportunity to pack down with his mini coach. It is doubtful neither of them could have envisage that scenario many years ago when Joe first started at Cobham.

Cobham's pack was dominating the scrum and disrupting the lineouts. It was as a consequence of spoiling a Cornish lineout that Cobham gained possession. Whilst Cornish withstood the pressure on their line initially, when the ball was fed down the line to Savill he provided Bond with an opportunity to dart over for Cobham to restore the lead (7-10).

McQuade was delivering his trademark drives from a standoff position, but the home side withstood a further Cobham onslaught as the first half drew to a close. When the ref blew his whistle to signal half-time, the scoreline was probably a fair reflection of both sides but given the differential in league positions, Cornish had indeed upped their game and that was the lowest half-time score Cobham had achieved all season.

The second half would play out differently. Ryan Aujla came on for Captain Lippiatt, with Tom Davison taking over the captaincy. Within five minutes, Cobham pressure had enabled Burnett to go over in the corner (7-15) and that was followed shortly thereafter by a virtuoso run from the halfway line by Savill for the bonus point try. Redknapp took over kicking duties and slotted over the conversion (7-22).

Cornish would need the next score to keep themselves in the game and a long looping pass out to the wing secured it with Edworthy’s conversions making it (14-22). However, Cobham were now playing with more purpose and the fifth try came from a controlled, pushover scrum for McQuade to score that Redknapp converted (14-29).

Within minutes of the restart, Redknapp scored his second after intercepting a Cornish attack and running in from the Cobham half (14-34). Cornish had one further score when Edworthy picked up his second from a wide pass and converted, to make it 21-34. However, the final try went to Saunders who supported McQuade on the line to dart over, with Redknapp adding the further two points (21-41) to complete the scoring.

Cobham will have been pleased to have improved on their first half display to retain their unbeaten run and remain top of the league with, before welcoming Old Ruts this weekend (7 March). With Vandals just four points behind and ignoring any upsets, put Saturday 18 April in the diary for the key away fixture on The Island.

Cobham 1st Squad:-

1. Chris Lippiatt (Capt.)

2. Andrew Murphy

3. Ben Joyce

4. Joe Harker

5. Hugh Farmer

6. George Spires

7. Tom Davison

8. Jake McQuade

9. Ryan Saunders

10. Connor Dellapina

11. Charley Redknapp

12. Fin Savill

13. Taylor Burnett

14. Rory Penfold

15. Jordan Bond

Substitutes:

16. Ryan Aujla

17. Joe Patient (debut)

18. Ross Munro

Scorers:

Tries: Redknapp (2), Bond, Burnett, Savill, McQuade, Saunders

Conversions: Redknapp (3)

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