Dorking RFC

A Happy Ending to This Season’s Canterbury Tales as Dorking notch up a Half Century

Dorking 50-21 Canterbury

By Kevin Beal

With Dorking snatching victory in the dying embers of the game back in the first half of the season away at Merton Lane, Canterbury arrived at The Big Field looking to set the record straight. Dorking however had other ideas and ran out comfortable winners at the Big Field scoring 8 tries to 3 as their forward power held sway over a dangerous looking set of Canterbury backs.

Dorking kicked off playing downhill, and with the back row trio of Dalton, Osborne and Scholes commanding the open play and the front five of Litterick, Ellis, Bristow, King and Spugeon the set piece, Dorking’s back line were over the whitewash early as Toby McRae scored the first of his 5 tries with just 3 minutes played and his second after 5 minutes. With Captain Dalton scoring the third after 14 minutes and Henry Anscombe slotting his third conversion there looked to be only one team in it.

However, Canterbury dusted themselves off and replied with a fine try by Tom Best, converted by Frank Reynolds, showing that they too could cut loose when in possession of the ball. Further Canterbury attacks were snuffed out by Dorking’s dogged midfield defence and following a Scholes interception Dorking were able to work full back Cam Cowell over for the bonus point try, converted by Anscombe on the 25 minute mark. McRae’s third try, Dorking’s fifth was one to savour (watch it on the National League Rugby Review show http://www.ncarugby.com/national-league-rugby-review-show/ as Anscombe kicked high and long down the left wing over the advancing defence. Taken cleanly on the volley at full speed McRae was in the clear and as Anscombe added the extras Dorking were well ahead on the scoreboard, 35-7. Dorking continued to dominate possession, but a rare lapse in the defensive set up saw a gap open up for Canterbury’s second score late in the half from Nathan Morris, converted by Reynolds, and it was 35-14 at half time.

With Dorking playing uphill another McRae try at the start of the second half effectively decided the match, and although Canterbury threatened to break through, they couldn’t match Dorking’s intensity. Starved of possession Canterbury were unable to mount many attacks, but when they did slick handling stretched the Dorking defence such that try saving tackles and footraces were called for on a couple of occasions.

Canterbury had also bolstered their forwards with the introduction of the heavyweight ‘finishers’ which brought a little more stability to their scrum. Wing Frank Morgan scored their final try of the afternoon on the 78^th minute, converted by Reynolds, but Dorking sealed the match with two late tries in stoppage time from McRae and Fraser Mosley, the latter thoughtfully going it alone to save the unmarked McRae out to his left from the financial consequences of having to buy a double jug.

DoR Armand Roux commented:

‘Overall really pleased with a very dominant performance today.

It was not a perfect performance, but some parts of our game today was just great.

We really competed well at the contact points and physically we were up for a confrontational Canterbury team.

Massive credit to our pack who laid a great foundation and our backs who finished 7 of our 8 tries. Toby was also in fine finishing form today, which was great to see.

20-man effort today and they shared the load amazingly well'

Dorking

15. Cowell, Cameron, 14. Riches, Dan, 13. Mosley, Fraser, 12. Anscombe, Henry, 11. McRae, Toby, 10. Ramsden, Andrew, 9. Jackson, George, 1. Bristow, Tom, 2. Ellis, Jonny, 3. Litterick, Rhys, 4. Spurgeon, Joe, 5. King, Jasper, 6. Scholes, William, 7. Dalton, Fred (C) 8.Osborne, Finn. Replacements: 21. Catton, James, 25. Birch, Henry, 17. Howorth, Stephen, 18. Grant, Joel, 20. McDonald, Michael

Canterbury 

15. Waddington, William, 14. Hilton, Guy, 13. Hollidge, Lewis, 12. Best, Thomas, 11. Morgan, Frank, 10. Reynolds, Frank, 9. Cooper, Ben 1.Young, William, 2. O’Donoghue, Eion 3. Macmillan, Cameron, 4. Irvine, David, 5.De Vries, Jesse, 7. Murray, Cameron, 8. Oliver, Tyler, Replacements:16. Meredith, Vaughn, 17. Furneaux, Harvey, 18. Morris, Nathan, 19, Williams, Thomas, 20. Herriott, Danny

Star Man – Toby McRae (Dorking)

Scorers:

Photo's by John Watkins and Ben Hardisty