Westcombe Park 31 – 40 Dorking
Hat Trick Saves The Day
By Kevin Beal
Historically Dorking have not travelled well to Orpington and for much of the second half it looked as if history was on the side of the home team with the Red & Whites on the rack through injury and their own ill-discipline, at one time being down to 12 men on the park. But grit and determination prevailed and a hat trick from Toby McRae supported by tries from Bryan Hotston, Henry Anscombe and Tyler Norwood coupled with strong defence whilst outnumbered and growing superiority in the set piece scrum saw a late second half revival and a full 5 league points in the bag.
The match started well enough for the visitors as with barely five minutes on the clock, Tom Howe scooped up the ball inside his own half and fed the ball to Joe Andresen who put Toby McRae in the clear for a sprint to the left hand corner. With Henry Anscombe’s touchline conversion good, they were 0-7 up.
Kicking the restart long, Park pressured the Dorking line winning a penalty and kicking to the corner. Only strong defence kept their well drilled forwards out, but sadly Dorking lost Tom Bloomer to injury during this phase, but with Tyler Norwood coming on as a direct replacement Dorking were still at full strength. Park’s forwards continued to apply pressure and with Dorking giving away a succession of penalties it was only a matter of time before they were on the scoreboard as lock Rafael Dutta found himself out on the wing and over the whitewash. Conversion missed, 5-7
Park returned Dorking’s kick off with interest, finding touch, and Jasper King rose highest to take the lineout ball off the top. A Park injury caused a stoppage in play, and with a scrum restart and clearance to touch, it was ‘rinse & repeat’ with Tom Golder taking the catch and Finn Osborne breaking through the line out, making yards before passing to Tom Howe, on to Luke Baldwin who put Toby McRae in the clear for his second, converted by Henry Anscombe. 5-14. Dorking lost Finn Osborne to injury shortly after the re-start, with Daragh Chambers coming on as replacement.
Park were on the scoreboard next as Hooker Taine Wagstaff emerged holding the ball as the catch & drive maul following a 5m lineout rumbled unstoppably over the Dorking line, and with Nathan Wyman’s conversion good Park were right back in the game at 12-14. And as befitted this end to end game, Dorking were next to score as playing the advantage following a scrum penalty, the backline threaded the ball out to winger Bryan Hotston unmarked on the right wing to touch down far closer to the posts than he probably should have been allowed to, making for an easy Anscombe conversion. A more comfortable 12-21 lead for the visitors, but at a price as Luke Baldwin limped off to be replaced by George Jackson.
It was then Park’s turn to apply the pressure, and for the next ten minutes they attacked the Dorking line through both forwards and backs, garnering a number of penalties and close range line outs as Dorking sought to stem the tide. Eventually the pressure told and in a carbon copy move from earlier, Wagstaff was over for his second, converted by Wyman as the rolling maul crossed the line again. 19-21 and half time.
Dorking started the second half well enough, fielding the Park kick off and putting together a succession of attacking moves. But it all started to go a bit wrong when Park’s Dutta stole a Dorking lineout midway in the Dorking half and the home side began to turn the screw, with both forwards and backs pounding away at the Dorking defences, which held firm but at a cost of three yellow cards, leaving the Red & Whites with only 12 men on the pitch for a good five minutes. Amazingly the line held firm for the first three of these as the Park forwards continued their assault, but eventually they decided to use the width of the pitch and winger Thomas Burnham, in literally acres of space caught the kick through from Wyman to touch down wide out right, converted by Wyman. 26-21. Restored to 13 men, Dorking kicked off long only to suffer further disruption as hooker Ollie Rawlinson was forced from the field with an elbow injury. But as the carded players returned to the fray, Dorking’s shape returned and McRae’s third, following a succession of scrums close to the Park try line, levelled the scores at 26 apiece.
But Park were not done and winning a penalty at the restart for a Dorking offside, they pinned the Red & Whites inside their own half until a ‘not straight’ line out gifted the ball back to their visitors. With their set piece scrum now in ascendancy, it was Dorking’s turn to attack, and Anscombe, on the receiving end of Norwood’s pick up and pass jinked his way over the line next to the posts. Converting his own try, this gave Dorking a 26-33 lead.
Dorking’s discipline then let them down again as Captain Jasper King left the field following a small skirmish with his opposite number, and Park kicked the resulting penalty long. But some crossing in the line out gifted the ball back to Dorking, only for the resulting line out to be stolen by Park’s Dutta. With the Dorking back line expecting to attack, Park’s Tom Webster was able to make use of the space in front of him and skirt around the defence to touch down in the corner for an unconverted try. 31-33 with eight and a half minutes to go.
Dorking kicked long and kept the pressure on the Park defence which yielded a succession of penalties, all of which were taken as scrums until in the dying seconds of the match, Tyler Norwood forced his way over the line under the posts and Anscombe converted. 31-40
There was just enough time for a restart kick, and as Dorking turned over a Park scrum Sir called ‘last move’ and Anscombe gratefully received the ball from George Jackson and hoofed it into touch for the final whistle.
Director of Rugby Armand Roux Commented:
“We know that Park will always play well at home and they did not disappoint. Any sniff of momentum and they were putting us under pressure.
Our defence held strong for big parts of that game and even down to 13 men we were always fighting for it.
Huge amount of Credit to the Dorking team as they managed to stay in the game, push themselves and take the opportunities when they presented themselves.
Super proud of this squad with some amazing resilience shown today.
Teams:
Westcombe Park: Timmerman, Wagstaff, Roofe, Mc Pherson, Dutta, Chawner, Harris, Cook © Fryatt, Webster, Harrison, Jowett, Burman, Burkett. Replacements – Kitchen, Mundicha, Glasspole, Rhodes, Davies
Dorking: Connor, Rawlinson, Karimanzera, Golder, King ©, Howorth, Bloomer, Osborne, Baldwin, Hardwick, McRae, Anscombe (vc), Howe, Hotston, Andresen, Ellis, Bristow, Chambers, Norwood, Jackson
Man of the Match – Toby McRae
