Records tumble as Cobham score 15 tries in emphatic victory over OW

Last week the Director of Rugby at Old Wimbledonians, Matt Bell had provided a great insight into the culture and ethos of his team on the Cob Pod, explaining how they were building the same one club approach to developing their squad as Cobham. As a consequence of playing within different leagues, Cobham had not played Old Wimbledonians since September 2007 and welcomed them back to the Memorial Grounds. Suffice to say 'welcome' was doing some heavy lifting, as Cobham secured a modern times record score of 95-7, recording 15 tries in the process.

The match was played in autumnal sunshine and in front of Cobham supporters, which included many Vice Presidents who had enjoyed their annual lunch before the match. Luke Westgarth-Taylor made his first start of the season and there were returns in the back row for Tom Davison and Jake McQuade. With Fin Savill out with an injury, James Mitchell returned to the squad for his 30th cap having last played in the 2019/20 season.

McQuade and Davison made their presence felt in the opening minutes and from their respective drives on the halfway line, Penfold fed the ball down the backline to winger Sandro Celebidachi. He broke the defence to feed full back Jordan Bond, who raced through and touched down under the posts, with Dellapina converting (7-0).

Despite securing a good win the previous week, the Cobham scrum had come under pressure so it was reassuring to see the pack holding firm for the first set-piece. Although Old Wimbledonians were equally able to pass the ball down their line, strong tackling from Celebidachi and a deft pick-up from the melee by Davison gave the ever-present Penfold his first try of the afternoon (12-0).

It was perhaps Cobham's third try which encapsulated the control that the hosts were exerting in the match as it came within minutes. Davison collected the restart, which then went through six pair of hands to provide Charley Redknapp with his first home try, which Dellapina converted (19-0). The visitors knew they needed to regain the initiative and their efforts from the kick-off obtained a lineout close to the Cobham try line and from the resulting pressure, second row Louis Porter was sin binned for a deliberate knock-on. OW came close to scoring when their winger was held by Celebidachi, before Penfold cleared the danger.

There followed an evenly contested period of play, albeit with Cobham down to 14 men. However, when Cobham secured a scrum close to the visitors' try line the next score came from a Celebidachi handoff and offload to full back Bond, for his second and the bonus point score (24-0). Once again it was from the kick off that Cobham struck again as Porter, returning to the field, collected possession followed by a box kick from Penfold ended with Mitchell running in for another converted try (31-0).

OW responded by securing both possession and territory, but from the halfway line Penfold found a gap passed to hooker Wiliby, who offloaded back for Penfold to score his second. Ross Munro came on for injured winger James Edmondson as the first half drew to a close and defying the pressure that they had endured, Wimbledonians got themselves onto the scoreboard in the final minute with a converted try (36-7). 

It didn’t take long for the try fest to continue as the ball was fed wide to winger Celebidachi, to score under the posts (43-7). That was swiftly followed by swift passing down the backline for Bond to go over for his hat-trick. Dellapina converted again to bring up the half century (50-7). In between scores, OW had their share of territory and possession but the Cobham defence did not allow it to become anything more than that. The third try of the second half came from a rolling maul off a lineout and hooker Wiliby touched down. This time the crossbar assisted the conversion (57-7) before another kick off try was scored, as Davison released Penfold to run clear from deep in the Cobham half (62-7).

Even scrappy possession by Cobham was being turned into scores as Davison and McQuade enabled substitute Saunders to score a converted eleventh try (69-7). Redknapp has already scored two tries since his debut, but his break away run from the halfway line will have given him even more confidence (74-7). With five minutes remaining the result was not in doubt but in the last few games Cobham had allowed the opposition to score some soft tries. That wasn't going to happen as first Saunders provided Davison with his well-earned try (81-7) before Penfold matched his five tries in one match record, firstly via an interception try (88-7) before chasing down a kick ahead to complete the scoring. Final score, 95-7.

Credit to Old Wimbledonians for their resilience on what was a tough day on the road and congratulations to a great team effort from Cobham.  Connor Dellapina matched Penfold's twenty points with ten conversions as Cobham go to the top of the table with four wins out of four. They take that unbeaten record to Eastbourne this Saturday (18 October), who lost away to Trinity (32-22) on Saturday.

The 2nd XV also had a great result on the road winning 33-15 away at Reeds.

Cobham 1st XV Squad:-

1. Chris Lippiatt (Capt.)

2. Louis Wiliby

3. Ryan Aujla

4. Luke Westgarth-Taylor

5. Louis Porter

6. Taylor Burnett

7. Tom Davison

8. Jake McQuade

9. Rory Penfold

10. Connor Dellapina

11. Sandro Celebidachi

12. James Mitchell

13. Charlie Redknapp

14. James Edmondson

15. Jordan Bond

Substitutes:

16. Ben Joyce

17.Ryan Saunders

18. Ross Munro

Scorers:

Tries: Bond (3), Penfold (5), Redknapp (2), Mitchell, Celebidachi, Wiliby, Saunders, Davison

Conversions: Dellapina (10)

Drop Kick Brewing Man of the Match: Tom Davison