Saturday Old Reigaitians 1st XV travelled to Beckenham for the seventh round of their league campaign. With Captain Reilly Franklin-Talbot attending a wedding No8 Ryan Travers took over the Captaincy for the day.
Five minutes on the clock the ball was moved through many phases and once again Reigatian’s top try scorer Finn Coyle went over in the right hand corner following a strong break from Harrison Mitchell. Lucas Overtoom was his normal reliable self and added the conversion. 0-7.
However Beckenham came straight back at ORs with a try from a driving maul and then their impressive outside centre ran a great line to score under the posts and suddenly the home team had established a 10-7 lead their kicker unable to convert either try.
The team from Reigate managed to build their phases and press towards Beckenham’s line only to once again Finn Coyle took the ball in mid field at pace used great footwork to beat the remaining defenders and established the lead with Overtoom adding the two points 10-14.
The visitors managed another score to stretch the lead to two scores when Lock Dan Grant was found out on the Wing when the ball was moved from a ruck close to the line and quick hands to Grant where he had enough space to score his first try of the season. 10-21.
On the stroke of Half Time the Beckenham Scrum Half clearly blocked Overtoom chasing a kick and find himself in the sin bin for the first ten minutes of the second half.
Second half
Both teams continued to provide a very physical encounter with Beckenham’s vocal home support almost creating an extra man. It was until 13 minutes into the half that Reigatian had an attacking Line Out. On this occasion ORs were unable to win their own ball as Beckenham’s lock slapped the ball back Joe Gregson reacted the quickest to reclaim possession at the next ruck ruck the home side gave away a penalty Akex Skinner thinking quickly took the tap and moved the ball wide to Ben Holder who quickly found Gareth Stephens who used his pace to break the defensive line and managed to score just to the left of the posts. Overtoom added the conversion to make the score 10-28 and also claim ORs sixth try scoring bonus point from seven games.
Beckenham kept bringing the game to the Reigate team and from a midfield scrum their No4 made a great break from just inside the Reigatian half only to be tackled just short of the line by Tom Woodford. Despite numerous attempts to cross the line close in the ball was eventually moved infield where the Home sides impressive No8 broke a tackle to add five points the conversion was good 17-28.
Old Reigatian still had a two score cushion going into the last ten minutes. Played moved into the home teams half with a Line Out on the 22 line. Line Out won by replacement Tom Bestwick with his first game this season following surgery over the summer, this was moved down the back line to find Finn Coyle in the mid field off his wing. The gap in Beckenham’s defensive line was perfect for Coyle to use his pace and strength to force his way over for his third try of the afternoon but his ninth try this season from six appearances!
1. Ethan Monk. 2. Ciaran Nestor, 3.Toby Collister. 4. Joe Gregson, 5. Dan Grant, 6. Hamish Broderick, 7. Oli Brooks, 8. Ryan Travers © 9. Alex Skinner, 10. Lucas Overtoom, 11. Harrison Mitchell, 12. Ben Holder, 13. Gareth Stephens, 14. Finn Coyle, 15. Tom Woodford, 16. Tom Bestwick, 17, Rob Williamson, 18. Harry Serjeant
