CS were back at home at home after away matches to high flying Havant and Medway, with the support of a good number of former players and their friends many of whom had attended the pre match ladies lunch. Although CS started with promise, and after 44 minutes were 26 – 5 up, any hope of posting an impressive score was lost by the concession of 10 second half penalties although CS did at least avoid a yellow card.
Cobham kicked off and although CS dropped the ball they were soon in the Cobham half and after half a dozen successful phases of play Will Scott drove over to score and James Houstoun converted 7 – 0. The next score, started with a penalty to Cobham, kicked to the corner, followed by a successful drive to the line, but they were unable to convert 7 -5.
As the game headed towards the end of the first quarter CS developed a number of phases and took play into the Cobham territory which led to a CS scum. In preparation for the scrum the CS backs split, and when the ball was won scrum half Andy Nixon went blind and found James Houstoun who sliced through the Cobham defenders to score which he also converted 14 – 7.
Ten minutes later Cobham were caught surprised by blind side flanker Tom Proctor who emerged from the back of a driving maul and finding space down the left wing shot off like an Exorcet, quickly making 20 metres before facing the last defender when he fed Andy Nixon who had a simple run in, but Houstoun’s conversion slipped just wide 19 – 5. During the remainder of the half Cobham were awarded two penalties both of which were kicked to the corner, the first resulted in a crooked throw and the second was well defended by CS, and the half therefore finished 19 – 5.
The second half was kicked off by CS who soon exerted much pressure through first the forwards and then the backs and finally back to the forwards which Ben Davies finished by diving over the line for the bonus point try with James Houstoun converting 26 – 5 after just 4 minutes of the second half, with justifiable expectations of further scores. After 12 minutes CS forced a penalty and kicked to the corner. Although they won the lineout it was scrappy and the ball was lost forward. However 4 minutes later they received another penalty and repeated the process, literally as this one also resulted in a knock on as well. After 20 minutes CS conceded a penalty and in the next ten minutes a further five penalties, which completely disrupted their patterns of play. Despite this on 31 minutes it looked like the CS backs were certain to score but Cobham brilliantly anticipated Liam Cleary’s pass and sprinted the length of the field to score at the other end 26 – 12. As time wore on another batch of penalties were awarded to Cobham, and they duly took advantage and scored; the conversion of the try would give them a losing bonus point, which duly happened 26 – 19.
“It was a very good first half, inn the main clinical and ruthless,” said Head Coach Mark Jackson “But we had that second half which we have to learn from.” Despite the disappointing second half CS remain second in the league and as leaders Medway lost away to Chichester, CS are now only three points behind the leaders. Next week CS are away to Gravesend. The second team also had a good win against Merlins.