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OAs vs Old Freemans
(Away - 3rd November 2007)
Old Alleynian’s FC 20 (15) [T: Rutteman, Mead (2); C: Docherty; P: Docherty]
Old Freemen’s RFC 11 (11) [1T; 2 P]
Old Alleynian’s moved up to outright second in the Surrey One league table after inflicting a fourth defeat of the season on newly promoted Old Freemen’s over in Ashtead on Saturday. A strong all round performance laid the foundation with the visitors outscoring the hosts three tries to one.
In a well spirited game, Old Alleynian’s opened the scoring with a penalty from the left before a sweeping move, started by Beaumont on the right wing, and a series of offloads and slick passing allowed Rutteman to score on the left. With the conversion successful Old Alleynian’s opened up an early lead before gifting Old Freemen’s two soft penalties to reduce the arrears to four points.
With the line-out performing well and constant disruption to the Old Freemen’s ball, Old Alleynian’s continually found space in the midfield. A couple of handling errors deep in the Old Freemen’s half spurned possible tries but the tempo of the game was encouraging and eventually the next score came. A chip into the bottom right corner was not dealt with by the home winger and Mead managed to burrow over to score.
On the stroke of half time, Old Freemen’s, second best for much of the half, were lifted when a midfield break allowed the inside centre to score on the left touchline. With the conversion rebounding off the upright, the half time score was 15-11.
The second half was a much tighter affair with Old Freemen’s looking to the strength of their pack and rolling maul to cause problems. A midfield break from Thomas was a notable highlight of the half, nearly beating the covering full back for pace on the outside. Senger continually caused problems for the home defence with a number of deft offloads and first up tackles around the fringes, while Ayres provided the stability at full back as Old Freemen’s looked to kick for territory on occasion.
The Old Alleynian third try was a length of the field affair. Old Freemen’s failed with a poor drop goal attempt, which was then passed for a quick 22m drop out. The ball was taken up to half way before Mead finished off the move and scored on the left touchline. Van der Westhuizen was brought on to stabilise the scrum for the final fifteen minutes and soon the Old Alleynian pack was going forward as Old Freemen’s tired.
Old Freemen’s did respond and generated a couple of field positions deep in the Old Alleynian half but strong defence thwarted any possible comeback. Old Alleynian’s finished comfortable winners and now travel in confident mood to Croydon this Saturday.
Team: Wisson, White, Inzani, Richardson, Thomas, Senger, Hartley, Hood, Kent, Docherty, Beaumont, Rutteman, Sandars, Mead, Ayres. Subs: Juuko, Tullo, Van der Westhuizen.
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