Horsham return to winnings ways with important win over London Cornish

LONDON 1 SOUTH
Saturday 14th December 2019
Horsham 12-7 London Cornish
Report by Richard Ordidge
Photo by Darryl Sears

Horsham got back to winning ways with a hard fought 12-7 win at Coolhurst over London Cornish. Five successive defeats had seen the Green and White slip from the lofty position of fifth to tenth and hover just above the relegation zone so this victory was a much needed tonic to reverse the losing trend before it became a habit. The bulk of the losses have been against sides at the top end of the table so as the Green and Whites began to look over their shoulder, preserving daylight between sides below them such as London Cornish had begun to take on great significance. Horsham were boosted by the return of Declan Nwachukwu who scored his tenth try of the season. The game was however marred by a serious injury to a London Cornish player after 15 minutes causing the game to be switched to an adjacent pitch.

A relieved Head Coach Nick Stocker said after the game: “A disjointed performance but an important win registered to break the losing streak. We started very well but the disruption caused by a worrying injury to a London Cornish player and subsequent pitch changes saw momentum lost.”

Nwachukwu opened the scoring after 10 minutes following a great kick return involving Aaron Linfield, Jordan Bell and Frankie Smith which was converted by Bell.

Following the injury and the move of pitches Horsham remained in the ascendancy but try scoring opportunities, as well as a slot at goal following the award of a penalty were missed and the Green and Whites went into half time leading 7-0.

Horsham were almost left to rue their inability to convert their dominance into points as London Cornish came back in the second half to score a converted try after forcing a series of penalties to level the scores at 7-7 after 60 minutes.

London Cornish then missed two penalty kicks at goal in attempt to take the lead in this tightly fought contest, and when Frankie Smith was yellow carded with ten minutes remaining the advantage was further ceded to the visitors. Horsham then broke out of defence to secure an attacking position in the corner and a powerful scrum saw a winning try following a pick-up at the base scored by Jordan Smith to win 12-7.

Stocker went on to say: “On the positive side, we offered a greater threat today compared to recent weeks but our profligacy in the opposition 22m saw us miss chances that should have put the game to bed by half time. Instead, with only one score in it going deep into the game, the potential for Cornish to grab a morale boosting score was always there. And so it proved with Cornish looking threatening in the latter stages as they pushed for a win that would have been very unlikely on their first half showing.

Our set piece worked well and when we got our runners going, we looked good. Our scrum in particular was dominant throughout but did not get the rewards it deserved until the final passage of play where its dominance secured the win and because of this, we did not award an individual man of the match but instead felt the front row of Nick Bell, Ciaran Preston, Dan Cass, and Giles Barber off the bench, in particular needed recognition for a job well done.

Next week we begin the return set of fixtures against old foes Beckenham. We will need to repeat some aspects of our performance today whilst ensuring we convert the opportunities created if we are to do the double over them this year.

Finally, we are pleased to hear that the Cornish player was released from hospital and we wish him a speedy recovery.”

Horsham: Watts (Condon); Nwachukwu, Bell J, Smith F, Squire; Notter, Linfield; Bell N, Preston, Cass (Barber); Osgood, Tredgett; Smith J, Paku (Grief), Redmayne