With Warlingham’s side shorn of players as a result of injuries and
unavailabilities, and a London Cornish side bent of achieving promotion,
this fixture was always going to be difficult for the home side. Cornish lost
in play-off finals in both the last two seasons and had recruited strongly over
the summer to give them a strong well-drilled and experienced team.
Conversely Warlingham drafted in some younger players on the day
and, despite the one-sided result, the Warlingham young bucks played out
of their skins by defending stoutly and tackling like dervishes. After a bright start
from Warlingham their endeavours were hampered by early injuries to a number
of players resulting in them having only fourteen players on the pitch for three-quarters of the fixture.
Cornish took full advantage of the extra man and ran in eleven unanswered tries
but dogged performances from prop Alex Nunn, John Fox and flanker Josh Turner
made Cornish work hard for their rewards. Captain Alex Skinner and scrum half
Alex Sampson made their presence felt all afternoon but the powerful Cornish pack
sapped the energy of the home forwards giving their accomplished back line freedom
to run strong, intelligent lines of play.
Head coach Paddy Dennien said after the match, “Cornish are a class act and very few sides will trouble them this season. Despite the one man deficit we fought tenaciously for 80 minutes and I can’t ask for more than that.”

Next Saturday Warlingham are away to London Exiles and their next home game is on 1st October against Twickenham RFC