Dorking 31-7 Canterbury
By Kevin Beal
Defence wins the day.
Fourth plays fifth in the league, 3 wins and 1 loss apiece, 13 games played with Dorking winning 6 and Canterbury 7. So a close encounter was expected. But in the end Dorking ran out comfortable winners by five tries to one in a stop-start game of two halves dominated by Storm Amy.
Canterbury kicked off playing with the wind and immediately set up base camp in Dorking’s 22. Forced on the back foot and due to the wind unable to clear their lines via the boot, the home side were quickly down to 13 players as desperate defence in the red zone was deemed illegal by Sir. Said defence then held firm under massive fire until the 11th minute when Canterbury 8 Oliver Tyler forced his way over under sheer weight of numbers, with the conversion by Frank Reynolds good. With Dorking still on reduced numbers the omens were not good, but heroic and this time legal defence kept the visitors at bay for the rest of the half. It would be wrong to single out any particular player as the entire squad gave their all in defence as Canterbury used the wind to pin Dorking in their own 22 with both boot and sniping runs lead by Oliver and new signing Harry Sloan. With hindsight it was this defence that won Dorking the game as Canterbury could have easily gone three or four scores up during this period.
It was not until the 35th minute that the Red & Whites had their first meaningful forays into the Canterbury half, with locks Jasper King and Dom Sammut to the fore, ably supported by the rest of the team. A couple of searing runs up the left wing by Max Coyle came to nought, but the pressure bred confidence and shortly before half time, with the set piece scrum in the ascendancy, Tom Hardwick was on hand to finish a move started by Coyle and Tom Howe with a fine try just left of the posts. With the conversion into the teeth of the wind missed, it was 5-7 at the half way whistle.
The second half saw a reversal of positions with Canterbury on the defensive and Dorking on the attack. With increasing set piece superiority from the forwards they were able to turn pressure into points and Tries from Will Scholes, Will Sanders and Tom Howe, two of which Hardwick converted plus a penalty try saw them press home the territorial and meteorological advantage. Scholes’ try was one for the forwards as a good clean catch and drive from a 5m lineout was, at the third attempt unstoppable.
Next on the score sheet was Will Sanders as Scholes and King combined to turn the ball over and release the backs with a clinical over head pass to Tom Howe, who unselfishly offloaded the ball to the unmarked Sanders when he probably could have made it over the line himself. Unsurprisingly the conversion from out wide was whipped away by the wind, so no extras. With both forwards and the backs now dominant in broken and set piece play, after 60 minutes the result never looked in doubt, and so it proved as Sir awarded a penalty try following another 5m lineout catch and drive which was illegally collapsed by the visitors, and following a succession of scrum penalties and re-sets, the try of the afternoon by Tom Howe as the backline whipped the ball from right to left, creating acres of space for the run in and touch down next to the posts on the stroke of full time, making for an easy (ish, given the wind) conversion for Hardwick followed by the final whistle.
Director of Rugby Armand Roux commented:
“I was really pleased about our overall performance today considering the challenging conditions.
Our defensive application was simply outstanding even when we were down to 13 men the players stayed in the system and kept working for each other.
We had limited opportunities in the first half. To have 5-7 score line at half time, going up the hill and the strong wind slightly against us, brought a quiet sense of confidence that we got this.
I thought Scholes had a real skipper’s performance and Coyle at 15 lighting it up when he was on the ball. The pack really had to dig deep both defensively, on the number deficit, as well as dominating at Scrum time. The front Row can certainly take a bow with the rest of the squad getting on with their jobs.
It was a solid improvement from our Henley win and now we start to focus on OA’s visiting us next who seems to be flying high at the moment”
Teams:
Dorking
Coyle, Sanders, Howe, Powell, Barker, Hardwick, Jackson, Bristow, Head, Barry, Sammut, King, Howorth, Elbrow, Scholes (C). Replacements - Rawlinson, Stephenson, Chambers, Butler, Baldwin
Canterbury
Talbot, Jones, Sloane, Waddington, Furneaux, Williams, Reynolds, Huntley, O’Donoughue, Frostick, McGovern, Stephens (C), Walker, Thomas, Oliver. Replacements- McMillan, English, Dengate, Kenney, Young
Star Player- Will Scholes (Dorking)
Scoring
Dorking
Tries Hardwick (39) Scholes (47), Sanders (53) Pen Try (72) Howe (80)
Conversions Hardwick (40, 48, 80)
Canterbury
Tries
Oliver (8)
Conversions
Reynolds (9)
Referee: Mr Harry Parsons
Attendance 487
