Thanks to our friends at Cornish Pirates for providing the photo and match report.Cornish Pirates 27-6 London Welsh
RFU Championship Round 19
Sunday 29th January 2012
Woll's Match Report
Judging by the post-match support of the Cadgwith Singers; not many noticed the gloom descending on a cold and damp Mennaye Field in the wake of comprehensive home win, that saw the Pirates finish the weekend in second spot. Barring perhaps the few hardy and vocal travelling London Welsh support, who must have known the game was up even after Davies’ first, of two penalties, had given his side the lead in the 17th minute.
Such was the manner of victory, that the last half hour was rather like a ‘pilot’ for some new reality game show, along the lines of Celebrity Mauling and Scrummaging on Mud. The Cornish pack had by then taken the game by the scruff of the neck and throttled any viable threat from the visitors, who simply couldn’t cope with the conditions that were in no small way, vile.
The pitch was a pudding underneath its deceptively green surface, and the ball a bar of soap, in a game the purists and oldsters must have salivated over as kick off approached. Even last weeks ‘man in the middle’, Ian Davies, was so excited, his pre match Granny Smith was inexplicably overlooked.
A sign of impending doom in normal times. But not today and from the first minute, as young fly half Penberthy opened up with a delightful chip touch finder into the Welsh 22. A benchmark was laid down.
In fact, the whipper-snapper stood out throughout, and utterly overshadowed his more experienced opposite number who, after incurring the wrath of JP in the 54 th minute; was withdrawn without further requirement after his detention.
That said, Aaron not unsurprisingly found himself targeted for some close attention which required Mr Doyle’s intervention on more than one occasion. Was he flustered? Let his first 47 metre penalty attempt, to give the Pirates a lead they weren’t to relinquish answer that particular query!
Beforehand, Davies, and then Cook had swapped three pointers and the Cornish 8 were beginning to rumble ominously. Ask Welsh’s Lewis as he turned inside his own 22 and close to touch, only to see Ward and others bearing down on him and nowhere to go only 5 metres out.
The resulting lineout could only mean one thing and so, with Pirate skipper Cattle being totally ignored as the line beckoned; it was Brits taking the honours and a celebratory rub down with the magic sponge.
Cook’s extras extended the lead to ten to raise hopes of further success, which duly came ten minutes later.
Marriott and Gibson had squabbled over a high ball on the Welsh 22, which resulted in the former Albion winger having to limp gingerly off; to be replaced by Ron Weasley lookalike, and former Bedford man; Hurrell.
JP had meanwhile pinged the visitors which Penberthy wasted little time in going for the corner; and a second strike to hopefully kill off the Welsh threat completely. It was a good call, which set up Ward for the second try of the game on the back of a reset maul which only had one intention.
The visitors were now staring down the barrel, which even Davies’s second and final score of the day on the stroke of half time, did little to allay. Coming as it did in fortunate circumstance on the back of a daisy cutter of a pass from Lewis, 15m out.
A clean set of shirts for JP and hosts was the only real change after the break, as McGlone continued his sides tenacious defensive effort hitherto. Jackson felt the full force of this particular collision and never really fully recovered his senses as a consequence.
Even so the men in brown…red…whatever, at least strove for a score that may give some hope of a fight back.
However with conditions become ever more like a throwback to times past, it increasingly looked a vain cause.
Evans it was then, with half an hour still left to remind everyone that were some backs out there, who won the foot race to a Cattle kick through, and nab the crucial third home try. The winning score as it transpired with little left of significance other than to record a defining image of the day.
Picture former Pirate favourite, Ma’asi, with ball in hand and moving forwards at pace. Note then Cooper’s tackle on the hooker which stopped the Tongan in his tracks, before making swift progress in the opposite direction. The turnover was the final straw and pretty much summed up the afternoon.
I think we can savour that don’t you?
Cornish Pirates
15 R. Cook 14 R. McAtee 13 A. Short (22 G. Pointer 64mins) 12 T. Cooper 11 M. Evans
10 A. Penberthy (21 C. Thomas55 mins) 9 G. Cattle (capt) (20 T. Kessell 73mins) 8 B. Maidment 7 P. Burgess 6 K. Marriott (18 M. Smith73 mins)
5 I. Nimmo (19 M. Myerscough 55mins) 4 L. McGlone 3 R. Brits (16 A. Paver 55mins) 2 D. Ward (17 T. Cowan-Dickie 73mins) 1 C. Rimmer
Replacements: all used.
Tries: Brits, Ward, Evans
Cons: Cook 3
Pens: Cook, Penberthy
London Welsh
15 A. Davies 14 L. Gibson (21 W. Hurrell 35mins) 13 H. Tonga’uiha 12 S. Jewell 11 J. Ajuwa
10 G. Ross ©(19 G. Johnson 65mins) 9 R. Lewis (20 J. Winter-Moates 61mins)
1 B. Moss (17 G. Roan 73mins) 2 S. Nelson (16 V. Ma’asi 73mins) 3 S. Pittman 4 M. Corker (18 A. Brown 65mins)
5 M. Purdy 6 B. Russell 7 M. Hills (22 E. Thrower 61mins) 8 E. Jackson
Replacements: all used
Pens: Davies 2
Yellow: Ross
Match Officials
Referee: J. P. Doyle
Assistants: Paul Kimber & Richard Parker-Sedgmore
Man of the Match: Carl Rimmer
Attendance: 1802
Match Officials
Referee: J. P. Doyle (RFU)
Assistants: Paul Kimber & Richard Parker-Sedgmore
Match Day Sponsor: Vospers
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