Putting your head where it hurts: Rich van den Berg clashes heads with a London Cornish opponent, who has already been snared by Nick Barton. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0653970)
Guernsey 25, London Cornish 6
IF EVER Guernsey needed their senior players to step to the fore, it was on Saturday.
The opening home game of the London Three South-West season against Winchester a fortnight earlier had provided a relatively easy way of picking up their first points of the season. London Cornish, though, were a totally different proposition.
The black-and-golds, who had won three and drawn one of their first four games, were well organised and posed a big threat.
That Guernsey stood up to that threat and continually repelled it while producing some quick, fluid, attacking rugby was to their credit.
Captain Simon Sharrott wanted a big display from his trusted lieutenants and he got just that.
Leading from the back was Cameron Patten.
The Australian fullback was simply awesome in everything he did – tackling, carrying and kicking – and even managed to outshine winger Petrus Coetzee, who was excellent also.
It was thanks to Patten that Guernsey never trailed over the 80 minutes due to a marvellous try-saving tackle to deny Michael Dardis on 12min. as the visiting scrum half went for the line having received a neat inside pass from his half-back partner Dan Pollard.
By that point Guernsey already had a 3-0 lead from the boot of Nick Barton within the opening two minutes with the hosts’ fast start catching the visitors offside.
A couple of minutes after Patten’s first major contribution, Cornish drew level as Pollard kicked a simple penalty, but soon the Australian was edging his side ahead once more.
He joined the attack at pace to accept Blair Campbell’s inside pop pass, race to the line and dive over next to the posts.
Barton’s conversion made it 10-3.
Cornish replied with some persistent pressure, but just when the line loomed, Patten foiled them once more with a last-ditch tackle on Humphrey Bowles as he made a dart for the left corner.
Buoyed by such dogged defence, Guernsey showed plenty of confidence in attack with the half-back pairing of Divon Crouse and Campbell showing what pace and flair they add to the side when fit.
It was the scrum-half’s break that nearly led to Barton scoring in the corner and soon Cornish were down to 14 men for 10 minutes when a professional foul led to James Strover being sent to the sin bin.
Although Barton was just wide with that penalty attempt, he made amends a few moments later following another ruck infringement.
Seconds before the interval, James Regnard, who had been unusually quiet up till then, made a huge tackle but could not resist playing the loose ball while on the deck and he saw yellow too. That meant Guernsey played the opening 10 minutes of the second half with 14 while Cornish got back up to full strength.
But the hosts coped well in both defence and attack, even though the black-and-golds made their extra man count in the scrum.
All they had to show for that was a Pollard penalty, which made it 13-6, and Regnard was back on immediately after it had dissected the posts.
Another penalty attempt by Pollard drifted wide 10 minutes later and with it went Cornish’s chances.
Unsurprisingly, it was Regnard who had the biggest impact in the rest of the game.
He extended the lead with quarter-of-an-hour remaining, latching onto Crouse’s half-break, glancing around briefly for support before realising he could make the final 20m on his own and doing so with little fuss for a converted try.
The talisman No. 8 finished off the scoring in the 73rd minute with a pick and go on the short side from the base of a 5m scrum, barging and twisting his way over the line.
There was time enough remaining for Regnard, as the last line of defence, to intimidate an opponent to such an extent that he completely missed a pass with his hands and it rebounded off his head with the tryline beckoning.
There was also the unusual sight of Andy Bailey receiving a yellow card in the dying moments for a deliberate knock on, but that could not detract from a fine all-round game from the hosts.
Sharrott, who was quick to praise young Tom Ceillam who replaced the injured Darren Jones late in the first half, gave his pack their due for standing up to their responsibilities.
‘I thought the forwards were taking the crash balls up well and that gets us going forward,’ he said.
‘If your pack is not working, the backs cannot play. We have got backs in the likes of Blair and Jim Elliott who can carve open other sides, but they need to be given the platform to do it.
‘There were missed opportunities as well, so we still have plenty to work on, but overall it was a very good performance.’
Article posted on 13th October, 2008 - 2.29pm
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