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OAs vs Old Whitgiftians
(Away - 15th September 2007)
Old Whitgiftians RFC - 17 (10) [2T – 2C - P]
Old Alleynians - 26 (12) [T: Topham, Docherty, Kislingbury; C: Docherty; P: Docherty (3)]
Old Alleynians opened their Surrey One league campaign with a hard fought but deserved victory away at Old Whitgiftian’s. Following a concerted pre-season training programme Old Alleynians travelled confident of extending their recent run of victories over their old adversaries. Having opted to play uphill in the first half it was Old Alleynians who opened the scoring when Topham drove over the line after a number of phases of play opened up the defence.
With the travelling pack starting to assert their ascendancy it wasn’t long before further inroads were made. Despite conceding a penalty to reduce the arrears, Old Alleynians extended the lead when a flowing move with backs and forward interchanging alike, allowed Docherty to receive a Woodford pass and force his way over. The successful conversion opened up a 12-3 lead.
Old Whitfgiftians responded just before half time when the scrum half broke blind and caught the defence flat footed, chipping over to collect and score a great individual try in the corner. With the conversion successful, Old Alleynians carried a slender 12-10 lead into the break.
With the benefit of the slope in the second half, Old Alleynians looked to gain territorial advantage by kicking deep. The game started to come increasingly scrappy with both line outs struggling but the away pack winning the scrummage battle. A number of tackles, particularly a crunching hit by Van der Westhuizen on his opposite man, and from the effervescent Orr, thwarted Old Whitgiftians, who increasingly started to lose their discipline.
Old Alleynians scored their third try of the afternoon when after a number of phases the ball went wide to Kislingbury who went over unopposed to extend the lead to 20-10. Old Whitgiftians were not prepared to lie down and a lack of composure deep in the Old Alleynian 22 allowed the home side to latch onto a mistake and reduce the scoreline to 20-17.
That proved to be the final home score and with their discipline waning Old Alleynians notched up two further penalties to extend the scoreline to 26-17 and comfortably close the game out.
Not the perfect performance but an encouraging start to the season from which to build.
Team: Woodford, Topham, Van der Westhuizen, March, Thomas, Orr, Wright, Hood, Kent, Docherty (c), Kislingbury, Rutteman, Barrett, Wilson, Roberts.
Subs: Wood, Burris, White.
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