London Cornish now lead the chase to knock Tottonians off the top of London 2 South West and take up the one guaranteed promotion place.

While Totts, like most other clubs, were taking a weekend off, Cornish were locked in battle with Winchester, who arrived in the capital holding second place.

Winch are now back in third spot, but only a point adrift of Cornish, after losing out 20-13 in a tense battle.

The visitors went 3-0 down but got back to all-square when Connor Breen slotted home a penalty.

Cornish picked up another three points from a penalty kick before stretching their lead to 13-3 at the break – the home side’s Number 8 getting the game’s first try which was converted.

Breen struck with three points after the break and Winchester were level again at 13-13 when prop Alex Lee crashed over and Breen added the two extra points.

However Winchester were reduced to 14 when Lee, who had been spoken to by the referee on occasions during the game, was given the first yellow card of his career.

His teammates held tight but their stubborn defence eventually cracked, allowing the home side to score a match-winning converted try.

Winchester head coach Andy Fields said: “We dominated territory and possession in the first half and our defence was excellent throughout. But we didn’t turn that into points.

“At 13-13 I thought we might kick on, but you can’t give away penalties in defence and miss touch with clearance kicks and expect to win.”

He added: “Cornish are a very good, experienced and tactically savvy team, even if they played a very limited game this afternoon, and we can’t begrudge them the win.”