TRINITY 27-25 LONDON CORNISH

Trinity hosted London Cornish looking for revenge for the reverse fixture earlier in the season when they lost to a try with the last play of the game however things did not start as Trinity had anticipated with London Cornish opening the scoring after only two minutes of play.

Trinity were awarded a scrum in the own half after receiving the opening kick-off however a loose pass off the back of the scrum was intercepted. Cornish looked like scoring with their first touch of the ball but were stopped just short of the line. They were however awarded a scrum in front of the Trinity post which they won and after a passage of play the ball found its way to their right winger who stroller through unopposed. The conversion was added to make it 0-7.

The home crowd were stunned however they soon had a reason to be cheering! From the restart Trinity won a penalty. From the resulting scrum Josh Joubert j burst through from fullback making good ground down the left wing. He was stopped short however Trinity recycled the ball well, first attacking right before reversing the play to the left wing with Ben Telfer breaking a couple of tackles then offloading to the onrushing Ty Williams to score in the corner. The conversion was narrowly missed leaving the score 5-7.

From the kick off Trinity recovered the ball and after setting up a ruck Harry Wilson sent a box kick back into the Cornish half. The Cornish winger ran the ball back into the Trinity half and from the resulting ruck Trinity were penalised for being offside giving Cornish the platform to extend their lead to 5-10 after a frantic opening seven minutes.

The next twenty minutes of play saw both teams have plenty of chances, but it was not until the twenty fourth minute that the scoreboard needed updating. Trinity won their scrum just outside of the Cornish 22. A well worked backs move with Harry Wilson from scrum half passing to George Kimmins at fly half who popped the ball off to Telfer running the perfect line from centre to storm his way through the Cornish defence to score under the sticks. Kimmins added the extra two from the boot to put Trinity into the lead for the first time in the match at 12-10.

This lead however only lasted for five minutes as from a long distant penalty just inside the Trinity half Cornish regained their lead at 12-13 which would remain the score for the remainder of the half.

As with the first half if was Cornish who would be first to trouble the scoreboard in the second half. A well-executed back move putting their left winger away to extend the lead to 12-18.

Trinity continued to show their fighting spirit and halfway through the second half Olly Hubbard took a quick tap penalty to bulldoze his way over the line to reduce the deficit to a single point at 17-18.

Another well contested ten minutes followed with both teams going toe to toe with one another. Trinity then got the bonus point fourth try with Quinn Singh taking the pass from Adam Sheehy before dancing through a packed defence for the try. Telfer converted as Kimmins was taking a ten-minute breather as a result of a yellow card. 24-18 Trinity we’re back in front!

As we approached the final five minutes of the half a prolonged passage of play saw Cornish rumble their way towards the Trinity line with one of their forwards eventually making the breakthrough to score under the post. The simplest of conversions giving Cornish back the lead at 24-25.

Trinity’s heads did not drop and back they came restoring their lead to 27-25 within two minutes as Kimmins nailed a tricky kick against his former club.
A nail biting final three minutes of the game followed for this on the sidelines as well as those glued to their phones keeping up with the updates via WhatsApp as any penalty given away would likely mean the game would be lost! However, there was no need to worry. Lewis Chin-You was the hero at the end with an awesome turn over to seal the win for Trinity!

This was a fine team performance with everyone playing their part however final mention to debutant Tejiri Ajuchi, recently recruited from Camberley RFC, who had an impress first game for the club, welcome to the Trinity family!

MATCH REPORT – RUSSELL JONES

MATCH PHOTOS VIA PETE FILEWOOD’S FLICKER PAGE