The Home team welcomed back Gareth Stephens and Tom Allen from injury to complete a very dangerous looking back line. Reigatian always look to move the ball and play a fast tempo game, so Storm Ciaran was not what the team had hoped for as the rain hammered down and strong winds made fast flowing Rugby very difficult! However credit to the Grounds Team with so many Pitches under water the 1st XV Pitch at Park Lane was in perfect condition. For the first time this season there was due to be three teams playing at home but all other pitches had standing water and were declared unfit for Rugby.
As expected Battersea playing into a strong wind kicked the ball out of hand early on to test the Reigatian back three with two minutes Fullback Tom Allen fielded a kick ahead under pressure from the Battersea chase he confidently beat to players then appeared to slip as he kicked the ball. The ball dropped dangerous close to the oncoming chasers and Reigatian gave away a penalty trying to retain the ball. The penalty was converted to give the Visitors a 0-3 lead.
However ten minute later Allen made up for this error when after multi phases and a dogged defence from Battersea Allen managed to step inside his tackler to score the first try of the afternoon Lucas Overtoom added the extra points 7-3 to the home side.
Old Reigatian showed great intensity not only with the ball in hand but in defence their superb line speed did give Ironside’s a chance to develop any play.
From a attacking line out just outside the 22 the ball was carrying to the gain line by Captain Reilly Franklin Talbot then Alex Skinner cleverly switched play down the blind side for Max Coyle to make a break down the left wing, Coyle’s brother Finn fixed the defence running an inside line and that hesitation allowed Max to use his pace and score in the corner. Unfortunately no conversion but 12-3 lead with OR’s looking comfortable.
As play moved into Reigatian half on a rare occasion an attacking Line Out was awarded to Battersea who set up a driving maul probably in these conditions it was to be expected and Battersea managed their first try of the afternoon to pull the scoreline closer together 12-10.
Just before Half Time OR’s were awarded a scrum penalty giving Overtoom a shot at goal which he converted to give a Half Time score of 15-10
With the wind being behind the home side there was a belief that the game was there for the taking.
Battersea were obviously going to come out fighting and within a few minutes the home scrum was under pressure and Battersea were awarded a Penalty which was kicked comfortably to make the score 15-13. Then six minutes into the second half the visitors backs showed good hands and pace down the right wing with some impressive support to score for inside their own half. 15-18 and for the first time the Reigate side looked like they were struggling to find the intensity they had in the first hand and despite playing into the wind the visitors were handling the conditions better. This was not helped by the injury to Captain Reilly Franklin-Talbot a real cornerstone of the team. And then ten minutes later Max Coyle so often the catalyst for the Reigatian backs was lead from the field with concussion. These injuries seemed to take some fight out of the home side and Battersea managed another two tries to give a final score of 15-28.
This drops OR’s to 7th in the league and the next two weeks against Medway at home on the 18th Nov and next week away to Old Alleynians both within three points will start to sort the mid field of the league.
1.Ciaran Lee 2. Ciaran Nestor 3. Reilly Franklin Talbot © 4. Oli Brooks 5. Dan Grant 6. Jack Baart 7. Finlay Lock 8. Ryan Taylor Travers 9. Alex Skinner 10. Lucas Overtoom 11. Finn Coyle 12. Max Coyle 13. Gareth Stephens 14. Sam Turner 15. Tom Allen
16. Toby Collister 17. Seb Courtney Walker 18. Conor Woods
