Tunbridge Wells

Cobham 43 Tunbridge Wells 17

In near perfect conditions for Rugby, Cobham hosted Tunbridge Wells on Saturday at Fairmile Lane, and both sides contributed to a hugely entertaining spectacle resulting in 8 tries, a 23 point haul for Cobham winger Tim Green, and a highly spirited fightback from the visitors after having been left for dead, trailing by 40 points, with three quarters of the game gone.

By tradition, Tunbridge are a side that like to play running rugby – even on occasions to their own detriment; but for the first fifty minutes of the game, they were barely even involved as Cobham put together a ruthless and intense display, involving both backs and forwards in all aspects of play, against which, despite some valiant defending, Tunbridge had few answers.

Opening the scoring with a penalty after only a minute, winger Tim Green also pounced the first try a few minutes later. Fly half Arran Cowell, who enjoyed another solid game, carried the ball into the Tunbridge Wells defence, winger Rob Smedley made a break, before popping the ball up to the predatory Green, who converted his own try for a ten point lead.

Ten minutes later, a lineout in just inside Cobham's half saw inside centre Piers Gregory pop a beautifully timed inside ball up to flanker Simon Ackroyd running flat out, and with the visitors defence flat footed, he stormed in from the half way line, beating the full back James Warren for pace on the way, to touch down between the posts, which Green again converted.

With half time approaching, a rare piece of Tunbridge possession on half way tempted Cobham into drifting offside, and from the resultant penalty, Cobham's failure to retreat gave the Tunbridge full back James Warren vital extra yards to enable him to slot a penalty. This drew an immediate response as Cobham took quick ball off the top of the lineout, and slick handling brought full back Nick Sutton into the line to take centre Kevin Fisher's neat pass, having drawn the last defender, to score to give the hosts a 29 – 3 half time lead.

The start of the second half saw a continuance of Cobham's onslaught. With four minutes gone, winger Tim Green blasted through the defence to score in the corner, only to be brought back for a somewhat dubious foot in touch decision by the touch judge. This however hardly helped Tunbridge, as their resultant clearance kick only travelled as far as as the belligerent and visibly irritated Green thirty metres out; who, with a passable Jonah Lomu impression, battered his way through no less than six tacklers in the process of scoring his second try under the posts.

Straight from the kick off, flanker Simon Ackroyd charged right through the opposition pack up to the defending sides 22, where the Tunbridge blind side Rob Harrison was forced to kill the ball illegally, earning himself a yellow card for his efforts. Cobham's quick tap saw winger Rob Smedley out-pace the defence to score in the corner, which Tim Green again converted, to complete his 23 point haul.

Whether Cobham then consciously relaxed and eased up is a moot point; but the complexion of the game changed. Cobham's penalty count once again started to mount against them; a worryingly recurrent theme when thing are not entirely going their way, and for the following ten minutes Tunbridge actually saw some decent possession. Their useful centre partnership of Ollie Allman and Sitiveni Turagaiviu started to cause problems in the Cobham defence; and after this period of pressure it was no surprise when centre Turagaivui went over from close quarters to score under the posts, converted by full back Warren; followed by a second score five minutes later when a speculative kick by Tunbridge fly half Jonte van der Meulen bounced up well for the oncoming centre Ollie Allman, who wrong footed replacement full back Andy Flower to run in from twenty five metres to score.

With 13 minutes left on the clock, and Cobham's bench replacements all on the field, lock Bill Davison was forced to withdraw after a heavy knock; and as there was no way this could be construed as a blood injury, it forced Cobham to complete the match with 14 men. All thoughts of extending the score seemingly disappeared; besides which, the Kent sides' collective tails were up; and the remaining time was spent with Cobham firmly on the defensive; and ultimately pleased to hear the final whistle without conceding further scores whilst down to fourteen men.

Man of the match would have to be Tim Green; not just for his points total, but more especially for his aggressively taken second try; though flanker Simon Ackroyd, a constant danger until injury forced him off early in the second half, would not have been far behind. The versatile Tristan Lee, having moved from back row to front row, and now seemingly settled at lock is growing into his new role; and there can be no doubt the side was better balanced with Kevin Fisher back at centre. It was also great to see the return of the old warrior Spencer Franks at scrum half; and if his first couple of passes betrayed a little ring rust, his contribution throughout the game, both with the ball and through his undoubted presence, could not be faulted.

This win takes Cobham up to third place in London One South; and next week they must visit league leaders Gravesend in what should be a very intense encounter. Injury list permitting, if Cobham can replicate the performance from the first fifty minutes, then they can travel with a degree of hope and confidence that they can upset Gravesend's unbeaten league record and make a serious challenge for the title.