Ealing Amateurs 13-10 London Cornish

EALING Amateurs withstood a late fight-back by London Cornish to extend their lead at the top of Zoo Shield Division Three South to five points with a 13-10 victory at Vallis Way on Saturday, writes Rob O'Connor.

Man-of-the-match Adam Hulmston gave a dominant performance at no.8 as the Amateurs kept up their 100% home record for the season en route to avenging the  defeat to the Cornishmen when the sides last met.

Ealing were quick out of the blocks and went ahead within a minute when full-back Steve Verma neatly converted a penalty after a careless offside, but a spell of sustained pressure failed to pay further dividends.

That changed in the 27th minute when Mike Whitney took a clean line-out and cleverly worked the ball wide to Hugh Williams who powered over the line for his first try for the club.

Verma failed to capitalise from the conversion and the Amateurs’ lead looked under real threat when scrum-half Stef McCabe was sin-binned for an illegal use of the hands on the stroke of half-time.

After the break the remaining 14 rose to the challenge of protecting the home side’s 8-0 cushion and a dogged spell was rewarded when second-row Steve Kennett touched down following a line-out drive to give the Amateurs’ some breathing space.

Verma was off-target again from the tee and it looked as though the full-back would live to rue his sloppy marksmanship when the visitors reduced the arrears almost instantly with a finely worked try finished off in the corner, although home fans were relieved to see the conversion sail wide.

At 13-5 Ealing looked to close out the game but were made to sweat two minutes from time when Cornish touched down again, before center Des Crinion narrowly failed to settle the nerves when a long kick beat him to the dead ball line.

Another fine win sets up the Amateurs nicely for their top-of-the-table run-out against second place Rosslyn Park Hatters on Saturday who will be looking to cut the gap before playing their fixture in hand.