Cobham “Young blades” too sharp for Chobham
Chobham 17 Cobham 26
Another gloriously sunny and warm afternoon at Chobham, saw a young Cobham side outscrummage, out-maul and out run their local rivals in a loose but highly enjoyable and fast paced encounter.
Shorn of between 6 to 8 first choice players, many of whom were attending a wedding, Cobham were forced to field a young and inexperienced side in this local derby, and learnt in the process that in many positions they have genuine strength in depth, as each and every one of the players offered the opportunity to step up, took their chance and contributed to this hugely entertaining game.
The early exchanges showed Cobham's intent; which was to run hard and fast, keeping the ball alive, and probing the Chobham defence for gaps. Three penalties from fly half Cowell saw Cobham comfortably in the driving seat after the first 20 minutes, with only the single penalty from Chobham in reply.
The Cobham front row of Nunn, DuPlessis and Alexander had the opposition scrum under pressure from the start, and with locks Lee and Sadler more than comfortable in the line outs, and the back row of Cook, Johnson and new man Ackroyd easily the better of the two breakaway combinations, scrum half Avery was able to give his backs decent ball. With Fly half Cowell running the midfield well, the new and youthful centre combination of Lowe and Watkins, both in their first games, must have both had enjoyable debuts, and their sharpness in turn gave the Cobham back three of Smedley, 18 year old Disley-May and Sutton some room to work with.
After half an hour, during which Cobham were comfortably on top, Cowell sent a huge kick deep into the Chobham 22, where the full back, who generally had a miserable afternoon, failed to gather and full back Sutton, following up, picked up the loose ball and plunged gratefully over for the opening try, converted by Cowell.
However, with a comfortable 16 – 3 lead, Cobham's concentration slipped a little, and almost immediately the Chobham outside centre took a great line in midfield, bursting through for a converted try to make it 16 – 10 at half time.
The second half saw Chobham scrum under increasing pressure. One strike against the head was followed shortly after by a scrum which just competely disintegrated, giving Cowell a penalty chance which he struck wide. However, from the restart, Cobham recycled well in the loose, No. 8 Johnson burst through the home defence, and good backing up by open side Ackroyd saw him score by the posts, easily converted by Cowell. Within a further few minutes, another disrupted Chobham scrum saw Cowell slot his 6th kick of the afternoon, and with a 16 point lead, it was apparent this was not going to be the hosts day.
To their credit, they never gave up, and Chobham enjoyed their best spell in the middle of the second half. This was perhaps where the inexperience in the Cobham side showed. At the back of a scrum, Avery found himself with an awkward ball to deal with, Chobham nudged it through, and Cobham, panicking, failed to clear, to gift Chobham their second try to reduce the lead to 9 points. However the introduction of the hugely experienced and rather intimidating form of Darroch-Warren as replacement tight head only served to bulk up the already dominant Cobham pack, and the last ten saw Cobham driving repeatedly at the Chobham line in the forwards, eating up time and tie-ing up possession; with only some desperate defence and some perhaps sympathetic refereeing denying Cobham a further score.
All in all, a fine display from all involved makes it hard to single out individuals for praise; but Arran Cowell at fly half had an excellent game, and took the mantle of “line-boss” very well, and was probably man of the match. Openside Simon Ackroyd, on his debut, landed some significantly bone crunching hits, and the whole back row had a wonderfully balanced look about it. In the front row, hooker DuPlessis, excellent in the tight, had an outstanding afternoon round the park, and prop Alexander, in his first match of the season, was massively destructive in the tight, and lively in the loose.
With the “wedding guests” returning next week, the Cobham Coaching staff have a major headache in who they leave out for next weeks match, at home to Old Elthamians. More importantly, though, is the fact that they have been able to blood several new young players, and found them to be more than up to the task; which can only auger well for the rest of the league programme.
