Cobham were playing Guernsey for the first time since 2007/8, when both teams were together in London South West 3 league. Guernsey had secured their promotion from London 2 South West last year having scored over 700 points and obtained 14 bonus points, so this was always going to be a high scoring game.
Cobham continue to develop its youth squad playing alongside experienced players but injuries and lack of availability meant there were 8 changes to the Cobham starting line up from the previous week with Captain Cowell coming in at full back for the first time this season.
This match was originally scheduled to kick off at 3pm and if only it had been so, the final score would have been Cobham 25- Guernsey 20. As it was the match kicked off 30 minutes earlier but unfortunately only Guernsey seemed to have been told that as they proceeded to secure a converted try and two penalties during a period where all the play was in the Cobham half.
Earlier in the day England had seen France establish a 16 point league and fail in their attempt to claw their way back so it was always going to be a big ask for Cobham to do the same. However to their credit, whereas England never looked like achieving it, Cobham did and at one stage got to within 3 points.
When Cobham finally did get into the Guernsey half their forwards made it look easy as Nunn powered over and Cowell converted 7-13 and although Guernsey responded with a penalty shortly thereafter 7-16 Nunn was to the fore again to assist Alex Crane to score Cobham' second try in a further exhibition of forward might 12-16.
However just as Cobham were getting within sights a successful Guernsey line out, followed by a drive to the line provided the ball for number 7 Robin le Cocq to go over and full back Luke Jones to convert to finish the first half at 12-23.
Cobham came out for the second half looking revitalised and with Nunny, continuing to play out of his skin, a penalty led to centre Kevin Fisher making the score 17-23 and a further penalty for Cowell to get to within one score 20-23.
Guernsey always have to travel a long way to play their rugby and it was at this point that they dug deep to elicit a penalty for multiple offsides by Cobham 20-26 and then for Robin Le Cocq to cover over for his brace 20-31 with Luke Jones again being successful with the conversion 20-33.
There was time for Cobham's forwards to achieve one final assault on the Guernsey line and Billy Davison achieve the honours 25-33.
Next week sees Cobham travel down to Haywards Heath, who are also struggling to achieve any consistency this Season but got closer to Guernsey's score away so this will be a big match to be won.
Paul Hickson
