Saturday was Old Reigatian’s first fixture at Level 6 in the English Leagues. Having spent 12 years at level 7 everyone is looking forward to traveling to new Clubs and visit old foes and generally test ourselves at the higher level. The 1st XV look in good shape with some quality players re-joining after University or playing overseas for a season.
Reilly Franklin Talbot continues at Captain for his second season in charge after gaining promotion in his first.
Last week ORs traveled to Farnham, a ground we have always found a tough place to get a W and this year would be no exception.
For the first 15 minutes this fixture was clearly going to be a closely fought contest. Farnham looked at the Scrums as an opportunity to put the Green and Blue’s under pressure, in fact in the first scrum pushing ORs backwards. Other than this the visitors side held firm but this marker showed how the Farnham pack were up for the contest.
If fact it was after 17 minutes that the scoreboard was first put to use and it came from another misfiring set piece when Reigatian failed to win their own line out Farnham back row quickly collected the ball which was then quickly moved to the left wing who was able to evade the defence and score in the corner. The conversion was missed and Farnham lead 0-5.
On the half hour the home side were camped on ORs try line pushing for a second score when the ball went wide Harry Serjeant pounced on an interception and set off down the left wing looking clear with the Farnham defence closing in Serjeant cut back inside with the try line in sight, but the last defender made the tackle count and ORs missed a opportunity to tie the scores.
Minutes later Dom Flynn and Lucas Overtoom combined down the right wing only for a foot on the line to deny a certain try.
The situation got worse for the Reigate team with Flyhalf Overtoom being sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. However the team seem to dig in with the forwards finding a dominance to take a driving maul 20 meters up the middle of the pitch the backs moved the ball quickly with an outstanding pass from Harry Serjeant who had moved to flyhalf to cover for Overtoom’s yellow card, The long pass found Gareth Stephens going flat out straight through the Farnham mid field and beat the last defender to score and draw the scoreline to 5-5.
Just before Half Time the Home side were awarded a penalty in front of the posts, the Penalty was kicked to give the home side an 8-5 lead at half time.
At the beginning of the second half there was a number of penalties which eventually Farnham took a kick at Goal adding another three points giving them a 11-5 lead.
After an hour had past Reigatian’s were increasing the pressure on Farnham’s line as ORs moved the ball to get the attack in the wider channels Ben Holder fresh from the bench had his pass intercepted and the next moment Farnham had scored the other end of the pitch to stretch their lead to 18-5.
The win now unlikely there was still a chance of a losing bonus point. Reigatian gave one last push and put a number of phases together. Max Coyle finally went over in the corner leaving a touchline conversion to get the bonus point.
Lucas took the extra points making the final score 18-12 to at least come away with a point.
Not an ideal start to Level 6 Rugby but ORs certainly didn’t look out classed and a game that could have been won. A game with two interceptions one taken and one not just shows it is the fine margins that can make the difference, at least ORs didn’t come away empty handed. Either team could have walked away with the Win and a few improvements in certain areas can move this team forward. Early days in the new league and a long season ahead. Next week Reigatian’s take on Chichester at Home. Any support would be massively appreciated.
