Cam Claim All Five Points at London Cornish

Following last week's thrilling game against Welsh the visit to SW15 to play London Cornish was always going to be much more difficult than the sides' league positions would indicate.
However on a grey but mild(ish) day Cam, despite losing the plot several times during the 80 minutes, eventually came out on top scoring 6 tries to the 1 claimed by Cornish.
Cam made several changes from last weekend and we saw Harry Faulkner starting at 15, the Wright brothers teaming up in the centre, George back on the wing following his hamstring tweak and in the pack a first start this season for Baz, although probably the best tight head in the league he started in the row with Dom (a combined weight of at least 240kg) as he returns after a road accident kept him on the sidelines until now. We also saw Ben Lovell Smith (BLS) starting at blindside and promising young prop Ryan on the bench.

With Cam starting proceedings we soon saw the black and ambers with a lineout just inside the Cornish 22 and a great lineout drive set up a good attacking position deep in the red zone and with just 5 mins on the clock we saw thee younger of the Wright brothers claim the first touch down and with Smarty adding the extras Cam were on the board.
From the Cornish restart Cam soon moved back into the red zone courtesy of a couple of pens and a high tackle infront of the posts saw Smarty take the 3 points on 10 mins.
The restart was again dealt with by Cam but from the ensuing lineout Cornish managed to string some phases together and when they won a penalty on the Cam 22 the score was 3-10 after 13 mins.
Cam's response was almost immediate when, after a sweet grubber kick by Smarty, Cornish had to take one of the new goal line drop outs which was collected well by George who took the ball back into the red zone and quick ball saw Harry Faulkner cross for an unconverted try with just 15 mins gone.
The restart this time saw great drives by firstly Baz and then Connor but the resultant kick for touch was too strong so the advantage was lost and this signalled a period of scrappy play by Cam which eventually saw Cornish add another penalty to their score on 33 mins.
This then heralded a period of rugby which surely pleased coach Mal. The Cam restart ws not cleared well by Cornish and a couple of pens saw a Cam lineout 15m from the Cornish line where, despite good defence from the home side, we eventually saw Shawa break through and although he was tackled just short the ball was quickly recycled and Josh Wright dotted down under the posts.
We then had glimpse of what Cornish were capable of when from a lineout in the Cam 22 a great flip pass by their centre gave his winger just enough space to cross in the corner on the stroke of half time for a 11 22 scoreline.

Again, as with time in the first half we had a period when Cam engineered themselves into good attacking positions but a sloppy last pass or someone going off script meant that they did not add to their score until the 56th minute when, following an exciting burst by Ozzie Greg deep into the red zone the ball found its was way into the hands of Big Dom and, like the huge oaks he downs every day during the week, he crashed over for a well taken score and with that the tbp.
With Risey and Mal ringing the changes the Cam pack became very dominant and another period of intense pressure close to the Cornish line eventually saw the award of a penalty try and 10mins in the cooler for the Cornish 7 who, to be fair had probably been their best player.
Despite their best efforts the home side were not really able to make an impression on the Cam defence and when we saw great breaks by Tom Chennell and Birdy take play again deep into the Cornish red zone another good lineout catch and drive saw Ozzie Greg claim the score, proving yet again that while 20m may be a tad too far for him he is lethal from 2m.
And that was how the score remained with a slightly better performance by Cam in the second half when they managed to 'nil' Cornish and when we also saw a very promising debut by Ryan who at just 19 looked quite at home in the front row.

Overall a very satisfying result against a side who, despite their league position, will always provide a stern test at home.
We did manage to see several periods of real quality rugby from Cam by both forwards and backs but too often silly errors, slight lapses in concentration and also going off script together with a good defensive performance by Cornish meant that too many scores were left on the park.
Nick Barry in his first game back did the full 80 and BLS had an outstanding game, good around the park and a very valuable lineout jumper while Ryan clearly enjoyed his first real taste of 1st XV rugby and seemed to relish the experience.
It was also good to see Wright 'the younger' showing some of his form of yesteryear, looking much sharper and more aggressive than in recent games.

So next week we entertain Horsham at Watchetts in another must win game, in fact they are all must win games if the side wants to be in with a shout at the end of the season.

And Finally – So all smiles at Castle Grim as the C&Ws extended their unbeaten run in the Prem to 4 games as they sent Newcastle home pointless, now their next big challenge is to maintain this record even though their next game is against the Chiefs at Kingsholm next Friday.

Pic by Dinger shows Josh Wright crossing for the first try - shepherded by BLS