Saturday 23rd saw Old Reigatian 1st XV travel to Chobham off the back of a two defeats from Totts and Chiswick and looking for the first win since they travelled to Hove knowing that Chobham had defeated Hove the previous week.
OR’s were able to field an unchanged team from last week apart from the left wing where Finn Coyle returned to the starting XV some changes on the bench with Ciaran Nestor, Dan Jones & Charlie Jackman who had returned from Nottingham Uni for the fixture.
The same as last week Reigatian started superbly moving the ball into the wider spaces and within 6 minutes Max Coyle found a gap between the last two defenders to score the first try of the afternoon 0 – 5. OR’s soon returned to an attacking position and this time tried to muscle their way over with a driving maul from a line out, when it was clear this route was not going to provide a score the ball was moved quickly to the wider channels and Harrison Mitchell scored his first of the day to move OR’s 0 – 10 ahead with only 9 minutes on the clock.
Chobham started to get some worthwhile possession and moved into OR’s half for the first time. Their large pack carried the ball with great intent and once passed the gain line showed good skills to be able to offload the ball to on coming runners. An impressive passage of play gave the home side their first try of the day which was converted to make the scores 7 – 10. The Blue & Green’s kept a cool head and stuck to their patterns of play and worked their way into Chobham’s half and found themselves with an attacking lineout similar field position to earlier with a clean lineout take the maul was formed for another drive for the line this time Hooker George Wheeler found himself over the line for OR’s third try within half an hour.
OR’s looked dominant in every area at this stage and straight from the restart Max Coyle put Chobham back on their own try line with a huge kick their own clearance kick only made the 10 meter line when a couple of quick passes moved play to the other Wing where Finn Coyle had a one v one with his opposite number and with some great footwork he beat his man and had the pace to score under the posts.
With the extra points added by Alex Skinner OR’s moved 7-22 ahead with a try scoring bonus point before half time. OR’s were not going to rest there with a great passage of play Harrison Mitchell went over in the corner for his 2nd try and just before half time Dan Jones smashed his way over to make the score line at half time an impressive 14-32. The second half was always going to struggle to be as entertaining as the first but early on Mitchell fielded a kick from Chobham and did well to avoid the players chasing the kick, he then put his own kick through for Max Coyle to chase on to. Max winning that race and collecting the ball to add the first score of the second half, Jack Leech added the conversation to make the score 14 – 39.
Chobham stagged a 20 minute period comeback with two unanswered tries but OR’s had the last say when a driving maul just inside the Chobham half. Sam Foreman and George Wheeler combined down the blindside with Wheeler feeding inside to Alex Skinner to add their ninth try of the afternoon and seal a 5 point win 24 – 44. A great away win and a lot of confidence should be taken away to prepare for the Home fixture against an unbeaten Reeds next Saturday.
Chobham 24 – 44 Old Reigatian
Old Reigatian 1st XV
1. Toby Collister 2. George Wheeler 3. Paul Marshall 4. Reilly Franklin Talbot © 5. Dan Grant 6. Sam Foreman 7. Oli Brooks 8. Jack Baart 9. Alex Skinner 10. Ben Holder 11. Finn Coyle 12. Rob Williamson 13. Max Coyle 14. Harrison Mitchell 15. Jack Leech 16. Ciaran Nestor 17. Dan Jones 18. Charlie Jackman
