Oxford Quins 24 – 65 Dorking
First Half Blitz Seals The Win
By Kevin Beal
A blistering first half performance secured an emphatic victory for the Red & Whites at Horspath Road over Oxford Quins as with a monopoly of possession, scoring eight tries, over a point a minute, they took a 7-48 lead into the changing rooms at half time. The second half was contrastingly a far more balanced affair as the Quins regrouped to play a far more abrasive game and as the rain came down they disrupted Dorking’s pattern of play, secured more ball and ran in three tries of their own to secure a deserved try bonus point.
Quins kicked off and Dorking pressed forward immediately only to be thwarted in their momentum by a forward pass. Showing their intent to dominate the set piece they attacked the Quins scrummage and took the first of many strikes against the head. A quick ball out to Tom Hardwick, through the centre pairing of Calum Barrett and Tom Howe and a selfless pass from the unmarked Harry Barker saw George Head dab the ball down with barely three minutes on the clock. Tom Hardwick’s conversion drifted wide in the breeze, but it wasn’t long before Dorking were back on the attack with a storming run from Harry Elbrow supported by Tom Bloomer, to put Owen Davis in for a converted try followed immediately by a second from man of the match George Head making it 0-17 on the eleven minute mark.
It was then the turn of the backs as they whipped the ball back and forth cross field for Tom Howe to eventually create space to break the line himself, converted by Hardwick from out wide having now got the measure of the wind. Then again as Elbrow received the re-start and bludgeoned his way up field to put Bloomer in to make it 0-31.
A shell-shocked Quins managed to stem the flow and the game settled down; defensively they stepped up and despite having the lion’s share of possession with storming interplay between the backs and the forwards Dorking were kept at bay in midfield. Eventually the pressure and possession told and an overthrown Quins lineout on their 10 metre line gifted possession back to the visitors and Will Sanders sprinted to the line unopposed for their 6th try.
In what was fast becoming a rout, Dorking ran in two further tries before the break, the first from a break out near their own line as Quins showed what they could do when they had the ball, pounding the Dorking line only being stopped by an unfortunate knock on. The resultant Dorking scrum on the 5 metre line was, as expected easily secured and an interplay of passes between Max Coyle, Nick Barry, Jasper King and Tom Howe put Harry Elbrow in for Dorking’s 7th try, with Coyle on the score sheet in his own right immediately from the re- start has he shimmied his way through the defence to touch down in the left hand corner.
There was just time left in the half for the re-start and as the Dorking XV were thinking about the half time refreshments, Quins finally showed what their speedsters could do with the ball in hand as Henry Sayer powered over in the left hand corner for a converted try to make it 7-48 at the half time whistle.
Dorking started the second half with the same intent as the first – to run the ball at every opportunity. From a scrum on half way, a quick release of the ball with Coyle coming in to the line put Will Sanders in for his second of the afternoon. 7-53, and it was looking like another 40 minutes of torment on the cards for the home side.
However as so often happens in sport, it was not to be. The half time talk in the Quins changing room must have been to disrupt at every opportunity. This they did commendably, and coupled with the unforcasted rain informed a very different second half from thereon, full of errors and niggles which did indeed disrupt the flow of the game and turn the tables somewhat.
Whilst the try count was three apiece in the second half this somewhat flattered the visitors as it wasn’t until the final moments of the game that they crossed the whitewash again. In between, Quins scrapped like terriers in the loose and whilst the game had clearly gone they never gave in; tries from Keiran Jenkins and Adam Field added respectability to the score, before club stalwart Alan Purchase, celebrating his 300th appearance for the club scored the most popular try of the afternoon from close range to make it 24-53 before Dorking re discovered the form of the first half with Coyle getting his second following a kick chase for the loose ball and Daragh Chambers closing out the game in the dying seconds with his first, to make it 24-65 at the final whistle.
Director of Rugby Armand Roux commented:
I am happy with the 5 points on the road, as we found out last year, these away fixtures to teams fighting for survival can be very tricky.
Scoring 65 points is great but in reality, our second half performance was below par and we all reflected on that after the game, knowing that we should be more clinical both sides of the ball.
Credit to Oxford, they upped their game and put some pressure on us in the second half, so credit to their resilience.
I loved the speed of ball we generated and the fact that we were playing some great front foot rugby. Our set piece was also doing really well so lots of positives to take away.
Teams:
Oxford Quins
Southwold, Field, Haynes, Sayer, Vermede, Brian, Burn, Archer, Irwin, Purchase, Jenkins, Cassidy, Bowler, Knight. Replacements – Hopkins, Wright, Watkins, Jenkins, Cooper.
Dorking
Coyle, Sanders, Howe, Barret, Barker, Hardwick, Davies, Barry, Head, Bristow, Sammut, Scholes, Bird, Bloomer, Elbrow. Replacements – Rawlinson, Stephenson, King, Chambers, Baldwin
Man of the Match - Nick Barry
Referee – Mr George Jones
