Joe McEvoy was the hero of the hour after his final penalty kick of the game edged Warlingham past London Cornish, the early leaders of London Division Two South West, 16-15.

For the second week running, McEvoy’s reliable boot was a significant contributor to Warlingham’s points total. 

Cornish went to Hamsey Green with a record of 16 continuous league victories including four straight wins this season.

This was fairly evident in their first-half performance which saw them encamped in Warlingham’s half for much of this period, but the home side’s defence was solid throughout and it took the visitors 35 minutes to score an unconverted try via Ciaran Acford.

This was after Warlingham lost prop forward Mike Freeman to the sin bin for repeated handling in the ruck.

The exiles added a second try just before half time from Sam Williams, and Luke Spells kicked the conversion to give the visitors a 12-0 lead at the interval.

Turning around with the wind in their favour, Warlingham began to use the elements to their advantage and turn their opposition and in turn forcing them to defend and make errors.

The Warlingham set scrum became more solid with props Freeman and Scutt supporting Jon Fox as replacement hooker.

Cornish became rattled at this pressure and started conceding penalties at the breakdown.

Although McEvoy missed with his first effort, he made no mistake with his second attempt and this fuelled the home side into playing further attacking rugby.

From a loose maul in mid-field, lock forward David Thornton broke tackles and charged 30 metres towards the Cornish line only to be brought down five metres short.

Quick recycled ball saw Zac King feed Jack Atkinson to score a deserved try, which McEvoy converted for 10-12 to the visitors.

Cornish then rallied and put further pressure on the hosts for the next 10 minutes but were unable to convert their pressure into points.

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Break: Warlingham's David Thornton, with James Agate in support, got on the scoresheet in the 16-15 win over London Cornish on Saturday          

Warlingham lost scrum-half James Agate with shoulder damage but were able to reposition and regroup with McEvoy stepping up to the scrum-half role.

With the clock ticking down, Warlingham won a penalty just inside the visitor’s half and McEvoy delivered the three points.

Celebrations were however short-lived as Cornish rallied once more with a 25 metre rolling maul resulting in a penalty kick which Spells duly converted for 13-15.

In the dying seconds, Cornish won their own scrum ball well in their own half and their number eight picked up and ran upfield only to be tackled by King who remained on his feet and won the final penalty.

Enter McEvoy for the grande finale and cue the lavish celebrations.

After the match Head Coach Ben Stobart said: “I’m obviously highly-delighted with today’s result and performance.

"To beat the hitherto league leaders proves that we can compete with every club in this league and we will continue to improve.”

Next Saturday, Warlingham travel to New Malden and take on KCS Old Boys.

Warlingham: McEvoy; Atkinson, Skinner, Saffrey, Osborne (capt.); Beaven, Agate; Freeman, Nunn, Scutt, Delderfield, Thornton, Dowling, King, Fair.

Subs: Glover, Fox, Robson.