Thank you to Woll, Simon Bryant for the match report and picture and all at Cornish Pirates, good luck in the 2nd leg.RFU Championship Final 1st Leg
Cornish Pirates 21-37 London Welsh
Wednesday 23rd May 2012
Woll's Match Report
“Meaningless”, so said Steve Wright’s ‘Sports Guy’ on Beeb’s Radio Two, in the afternoon prior to this RFU Championship Final 1st leg. What does he know?!
Clearly not a lot, as the Welsh Exiles from one end of the A40 or other, brushed aside their promotion hope disappointment in some style.
A twenty three point haul in a thirty minute spell of first half of dominance did the damage; whilst two killer blows from Tonga’uhia and Lewis on the hour, killed off any real hopes of the Pirates travelling up to Oxford with much more than a sixteen point deficit to recover.
And yet it had begun so perfectly in the evening sunshine, as Pointer burst through to raise a roof that was already straining at its couplings with barely five minutes ticked off.
Expectations prior had been high, and a partisan large crowd that had been whipped up by the Falmouth Marine Band pre match; canon, chicken and all; could be excused for thinking only positive thoughts.
It wasn’t to last unfortunately, and mainly due to the host’s set piece going completely skew-with, almost immediately from that point onward.
Davies replied from the tee soonest and, with the Cornishmen all at sixes & sevens with Thomas going off for ten, for an adjudged deliberate knock on; the writing was quickly on the wall.
Before the fly half’s return, Ajuwa had planted the first of side’s four tries on the night with Davies adding the extras on top of a second penalty. But things didn’t change when back to full complement, as yet another overthrown lineout found Denbee who set the ball rolling for Scott to canter in at the Clubhouse Corner.
Davies wasn’t in any mood to miss from the touchline, as was Ross who slotted a drop goal with half time looming.
The Pirates though did respond and ended the half in similar fashion to how they’d started with another seven points. This time the pack rewarding a period of pressure and their opposite numbers going backwards, with a penalty try.
Would it spur them on and spare them a bit an ear-bashing?
Well yes…and no as it transpired. The second period began brightly and offered some hope of a fight back. Sadly, a penalty from just inside the Welsh 10m line that was scuffed badly by the otherwise ever impressive Cook; sent more alarm bells ringing.
Burgess was a bounce of the ball away from glory, but then came that double punch below the belt that in effect killed the game off.
There was still time for some damage limitation however, as Tonga’uhia turned from hero to villain with a dozen minutes remaining. Hudson having scored moments earlier saw yellow for rather foolishly taking out Evans in the air.
A frantic finish ensued, but other than a third converted try for Burgess in the dying minutes, that was going to be as good as it was to get.
Thus we have an almost reverse situation to that which faced the Pirates in the semi-final; namely a large margin to recover as opposed to defend for the second leg.
Speaking afterwards, skipper Gavin Cattle highlighted the feeling that the pressure was, in some ways, now off his colleagues. But it was difficult to hide his obvious disappointment at the team’s under-performance.
The trip to the Kassam Stadium therefore throws up some interesting possibilities. Though the bottles of brown ale may have popped open in relief in the land of the Toon; one now wonders if somewhere along the Grays Inn Road. London EC there are some wigs being dusted down in anticipation for some summer work.
Of course, the Pirates may just heave a spanner into any such plans should they react to being written off not for the first time this season…
Cornish Pirates
15 R. Cook 14 G. Pointer 13 A. Suniula (21 M. Evans 63mins) 12 S. Hill 11 D. Doherty 10 C. Thomas (22 T. Kessell 63mins) 9 G. Cattle (capt) 8 K. Marriott 7 P. Burgess 6 D. Ewers (20 M. Myerscough 68mins) 5 I. Nimmo (17 R. Elloway 68mins) 4 L. McGlone (19 M. Smith 62mins) 3 A. Paver (R. Brits 66mins) 2 D. Ward 1 C. Rimmer (16 R. Storer 60mins)
Replacements: all used
Tries: Pointer, penalty, Burgess
Cons: Cook 3
Yellow: Thomas
London Welsh
15 A. Davies 14 J. Ajuwa 13 J. Lewis (20 B. Russell 76mins) 12 H. Tonga’uiha 11 N. Scott 10 G. Ross 9 R. Lewis 1 M. Lahiff (17 W. Moss 78mins) 2 D. George (16 V. Ma’asi 60mins) 3 J. Tideswell (18 G. Bateman 76mins) 4 J. Mills (capt) 5 M. Corker (19 M. Purdy 75mins) 6 L. Beach (22 S. Jewell 72mins 7 M. Denbee 8 E. Jackson
Replacements:
(21 J. Winter-Moates mins)
Tries: Ajuwa, Scott, Tonga’uiha, Lewis
Cons: Davies 4
Pens: Davies 2
Drops: Ross
Yellow: Tonga’uhia
Match Officials
Referee: Greg Garner
Assistants: Luke Pearce & Chris Sharp
4th Official: Richard parker-Sedgemore
5th Official: Steve Harland
TMO: Steve Leyshon
Ref Coach: Ed Morrison
Hair: Toni & Guy
Man of the Match:
Attendance: 3205
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