Lancashire 24 Cornwall 39
Cornwall and Lancashire produced an entertaining, toughly contested Bill Beaumont County Championship Final at the Allianz Stadium. The power of the Cornish pack was a major influence but the Lancashire squad battled bravely throughout and were level at 24-all early in the 2nd half. Two Cornish tries, one converted, plus a penalty, gave them a convincing final score. But the Lancashire squad never gave up and to a man fought hard until the final whistle.
The game started in the worse possible way for the Lancastrians when in the 2nd minute a heavy collision saw centre Jordan Dorrington carried off.
Fortunately, he recovered later and watched some of the 2nd half from the bench. Fylde team mate Alex Clayton didn’t expect such an early call off the bench but took his place in the centre. From the ensuing penalty, the Red Roses’ skipper Chris Johnson kicked a fine long range penalty from just inside the Cornish half.
The Black & Golds were soon pressing inside the Lancs 10m area and eventually flanker Sean Buzza drove over from short range. With fullback Kyle Moyle adding the conversion, Cornwall led by 3-7.
The Lancashire scrummage was struggling to hold the bulky Cornish pack and only courageous work behind a retreating scrum by no 8 Tom Ailes, who was outstanding throughout, and scrum-half Matt Sturgess got them out of trouble on occasions.
The Matavesi brothers, the elder Josh and younger Sam, both former Fijian internationals and with Premiership experience, started to make their powerful presence felt. They were assisted predictably and effectively by Herbie Stupple, the much travelled, talented and bruising no 8, as well as other members of the pack.
It was the Northern county’s turn to press inside the Cornwall half and in the 12th min a neat backs move aided by a clever overhead pass by Leo Gilliland to winger Owain Williams ended with hooker Jack Ellam forcing his way over to score. Johnson converted and his side were 10-7 up.
The Lancashire backline, despite the early disruption caused by the injury to Jordan Dorrington, started to run through their slick moves, orchestrated by Johnson and featuring the excellent centre Tom Forster, and the back three of Sam Freeman, Williams and Gilliland.
But Lancashire’s lead was quickly wiped out as the Cornish backs started to create space with clever running and cutting through the opposition defence. Winger Alex Ducker made a decisive break and scored an excellent try in the 14th min, duly converted by Moyle. A few minutes later they were at it again and it was Moyle’s turn to claim the glory when he darted over for a try and converted it himself. A Moyle penalty in the 34th min extended the lead.
Lancashire Head Coach Alex Loney shuffled his resources on the half-hour by bringing on props Dan Burchill and Chris Rudkin.
Just before the half-time break, Lancashire hit back with an extraordinary try. From 35m out from the opposition line, flanker Ashton Kassam-Sharples surprised the Cornish, but not observers who’ve seen him do similar damage in league action, by bursting through a couple of much bigger defenders and swerving his way past others with great pace to dive over near the posts for the try. Johnson’s conversion narrowed the deficit to 17-24 at the break and his team were right back in the contest.
Things got even better for the Northerners at the beginning of the 2nd half. Lancashire pressure deep inside the Cornish half saw Kassam-Sharples again make a quick footed break for the try line. He was supported by Forster who was pulled up a metre away from the try line. The Cornish defence prevented fair release before fullback Sam Freeman sneaked in to score in the corner, converted well by Johnson. This was a double blow for Cornwall as their centre Josh Matavesi was adjudged to have been the earlier culprit and was sent to the sinbin for 10 minutes. At 24-all, could Lancashire cash in on the man advantage and take the lead?
Moyle’s 51st minute penalty restored Cornwall’s lead and the still battling Lancastrians appeared perhaps to have lost their chance of a 26th County Championship trophy. This was underlined by a powerful break through a number of tackles by the returned Josh Matavesi to score the decisive try. Moyle’s conversion put his side well clear at 24-34. Still the Lancastrians battled on but the coup de gras was Cornwall’s fifth try notched by centre Max Boddily and a final decisive score of 24-39.
Lancashire Coordinator Mark Nelson said: “It was a hard fought final and at 24-24 we were truly in the mix to get a win. However, it wasn’t to be and Cornwall went on to get the result. The performance of the players was full of heart, commitment and we pressured a very good Cornish side by producing some excellent rugby. There was a tremendous spirit in the team with a majority of players making their first appearance in a county final at Twickenham. You could tell they all want to get back next year and go one step further and lift the Trophy.”
“It’s been a very good campaign, beating a strong Yorkshire side to get to the final and pushing a top Cornwall team all the way is something we are very proud of as a group.”
LANCASHIRE: 15 Freeman; 14 Williams, 13 Dorrington, 12 Forster, 11 Gilliland; 10 Johnson (c), 9 Sturgess; 1 Bowker, 2 Ellam, 3 Kyle-Clay, 4 B Walton, 5 Garrod, 6 Deans, 7 Kassam-Sharples, 8 Ailes.
Reps: Deeks, Birchall, Rudkin, M Walton, Castle, Clayton, Bradley, Browne.
CORNWALL: 15 Moyle; 14 Shepherd, 13 Bodilly, 12 J Matavesi, 11 Ducker; 10 Wills, 9 Boyce; 1 Andrew, 2 Cowan Dickie, 3 Gendall, 4 Osborne, 5 Pascoe, 6 Buzza 7 S Matavesi (c), 8 Stupple.
Reps: Prowse, Sheppard, Rodman, Hancock, Nicholls, Henessey, Larkins, Priddey.
Match video is at https://www.youtube.com/live/9IeNVfsTthI.
Fast forward to 6:00:00 to watch the whole game.
Here are the eleven Fylde players in the Lancashire squad plus support staff. (l to r) backrow: John Greenwood, Alex Loney, Craig Steele, Mike Walton, Tom Forster, Jordan Dorrington, Chris Rudkin, Mark Nelson & Matt Garrod. Middle row: Ben Walton, Corey Bowker, Alex Clayton, Freddie Deeks, Ashton Kassam-Sharples. Front row: Leo Gilliland.
