Hammers 1st XV too strong against determined Cornish
The Hammers headed down to London Cornish in the freezing cold with the expectation to come away with 5 points straightforward points, however, this became a trickier task due to Storm Arwin. With Hammersmith losing the toss and being forced to play the first half uphill into the strong wind, they knew that they were in for a tough first 40.
Cornish started off very brightly with them coming close to scoring within the first 10 minutes, however, the Hammersmith defense could not be beaten. Although the defense held strong and had forced Cornish back to the 22-metre line, a soft penalty was given away and Cornish opted to take the shot at goal, which they successfully converted and led 3-0. Following the kick off Hammersmith’s discipline slipped and led to consecutive penalties being given away and thus more pressure being applied on the defense, although Cornish couldn’t turn this pressure into points, the frustration within the Hammersmith squad was piling up This pressure was however was lifted on the 26th minute when Rich Vaughan put on his dancing shoes and after receiving the ball on the right-hand wing stepped his way through 4 Cornish defenders to finish his run under the sticks and giving the Hammers the lead. Joe Carolan with the conversion. The rest of the half was sloppy with neither side looking close to scoring until Hammersmith on the cusp of halftime crossed the try line only to be held up by a fine piece of defense by London Cornish.
As the 2nd half kicked off the Hammers knew that with the wind in their sails, they could play the free-flowing rugby that we all know and love. After some consecutive phases and the Cornish defense being pulled left and right, the ball was spread wide one final time before a smart pass by Harry Scarr put Peter Bicknell away to score in the left-hand corner, Captain Carolan missed the tough conversion. Shortly after the restart, Hammersmith applied further pressure and it didn’t take long for the debutant Ben Quaqua after running a smart line and bulldozing a couple of Cornish defenders to get over the line for Hammersmith’s 3rd try, converted by Carolan. There was no stopping the Hammers now, with another smart break down the right-wing Rich Vaughan threw a potentially forward offload along the floor to Ben Dugdale, who embraced his inner Ronaldo and fly hacked the ball past the last Cornish defender before dotting down. Following the try, Cornish came back and started to once again to apply some pressure on Hammersmith, with some smart offloads taking them all the way into the Hammer’s 22. Discipline once again was proving to be Hammer’s downfall and after numerous penalties, Steve John was shown yellow. However, Cornish couldn’t make the extra man count and the pressure they were inflicting couldn’t be turned into points.
The final 15 minutes saw the Hammers put the contest to bed, after some fantastic attacking flair shown, Ben QuaQua went over the whitewash to add to his tally for the day. The hattrick wasn’t far behind after some great lines run by the Hammer’s attack, QuaQua picked up off the base of a ruck and from 5 metres out he wasn’t to be stopped and bagged himself his debut hattrick. Cornish did manage to get over the whitewash themselves, but this was simply a consolation try which was rather deserved. The game was concluded Steve Joh caught the ball on the Cornish 22 and the defense parted like the Red Sea and he trundled in untouched.
Another good day at the office for Hammersmith & Fulham who are very much in the running for promotion this year and will be hoping to continue their fine run of form against a tough Horsham side next weekend.
Final Score – 47-10
