Dorking vs Battersea Ironsides Match Report
by Dom Smales
30/10/2022
Dorking Colts continued their tour of the south east with a trip up the A24 to Battersea Ironsides. Dorking had six boys in the u18 Surrey Trials and with a number of regular starters injured, took this opportunity to rotate the squad. This included a first start of the season for Callum Maddick and a return from injury for Ed Tyrell in a new-look back row. Their hosts were in a similar position and, competing in the tier below in the Waterfall Cup, this looked to be a good match up – at least on paper.
Dorking started really brightly. The forwards were providing a solid base and the backs were soon finding holes in the opposition defence. Fullback Will Simpson broke down the blindside, dummied the Battersea back line and fed inside to Will Darbishire to score on the right. 7-0 Dorking.
From the restart, Battersea kicked the ball straight into touch. Dorking opted for the scrum on half way and another blindside break saw Toby Winslett beat his man and feed Will Darbishire to score his second try, this time under the posts. 14-0.
Dorking were really firing now, with the backline moving the ball with pace and guile. Another blindside break down the right saw Will Simpson feed captain Chris Styles for Dorking’s third try. 21-0
Not satisfied with this, Dorking then scored the pick of their tries. Fly-half Charlie Nichol made a lovely line break, offloaded out the back of his hand and Will Simpson eventually went over to score in the corner. 26-0
Dorking then scored a fifth try of the half, all down the right-hand side. Charlie Nichol made another break, beating two defenders and bouncing off the full-back’s tackle to score under the posts. 33-0
The Dorking pressure was unrelenting. A messy kick off was gathered by Chris Styles and a couple of phases later Will Darbishire went over in the far corner for a first-half hat-trick. In a sign that everything was coming off for Dorking, Toby Winslett then nailed the extra two points from the touchline, on the wrong side, to take Dorking to a 40-0 half-time lead.
Into the second half and Dorking took a while to get going again. Their hosts, commendably, had not given up and a couple of big hits gave the home side something to cheer. But Dorking absorbed this pressure and then struck again. Ayaan Agarwaal scooped up a loose ball and, sensing space out wide, fired a pass out to the backs. The ball went through the hands for Archie Shires to touch down in the corner. 45-0
Will Simpson then added his second, cutting a lovely line through the Battersea defence to score just to the left of the posts. 52-0
Dorking continued to press, giving Battersea no time and space on the ball. After the Dorking pack drove the hosts back in the tackle, Chris Styles picked off a pass to score under the posts. 59-0
From the restart, the outstanding Lewis Gover gathered the kick, broke through two tackles before feeding Charlie Nicholls to score. 64-0
Battersea were still not done and showed great spirit to take the game to Dorking. The hosts camped on Dorking’s line for a good five-minute spell but Dorking were determined not to concede. Showing great discipline, Dorking repelled wave after wave of forward runners. Eventually the Battersea scrum half breached the Dorking line but Alex Power, who had been a nuisance all day, held him up over the line.
Dorking then had the last word. On the final play, another interception saw Charlie Nichol stroll over to compete his own hat-trick. 71-0
This game was not as easy as the scoreboard suggests. Battersea competed throughout and did not make life easy for the Dorking forwards. It wasn’t too hard to see the difference between the two sides with the Dorking backline scoring all 71 of the points. But this performance was also built on very solid foundations – particularly in set piece and defence. This was a proper team effort, with the boys showing great discipline and playing with real structure. This emphasised the strength in depth of the squad and reflected the commitment of the boys in training over the last few weeks. It also bodes well for the coming challenges in the Waterfall Cup games, with Esher next up at home on 13 November.
