Colf’s sat at 6th in the league table Saturday morning with Old Reigatian 4th and the Home fixture earlier in the season had finished with a 23-23 all draw. So this was always going to be a closely fought fixture with the Reigate having to keep winning to hold on to 4th with other Clubs having one or two games in hand.
With disrupted travel arrangements Hooker Jude Clark arrived at the ground about ten minutes before kick off and Jack Baart returned back from Holiday came straight from the airport to take his place on the bench ten minutes into the game. However the challenges had started for OR’s on Friday afternoon when Toby Collister the first choice Tight Head Prop with over 100 1st XV caps was injured at work and unable to play on Saturday. With Ciaran Nestor away skiing and Paul Marshall a long term injury it fell to Club Stalwart Mike Layzell to step up and play as the corner stone of the visitors pack. With Dan Jones offering his services as front row cover having never played in the Front Row before!
The match got off to a worrying start with OR’s conceding a penalty after three minutes which was easily converted for the home team to take a 3-0 lead.
However Reigatian found their free flowing form with Captain Reilly Franklin-Talbot scoring the first try of the afternoon after 12 minutes to take the lead which they wouldn’t give up. 3-7.
17 minutes the Coyle Brothers combined with Max putting through a perfectly weighted kick for younger brother Finn to use his pace to collect the ball and score his 15th try of the season. 3-14.
Lucas Overtoom who had already added two conversions gave the try scoring pass to put Oli Brooks away on a great angle and after 19 minutes Old Reigatian were leading 3-21 with Overtoom adding another 2 points.
From the restart a high ball was uncharacteristically dropped which the home side were awarded a scrum. From this the ball was kept tight and using their large physical players they battered the try line. Unfortunately young flanker Jonny Long fell foul of the Ref and was shown a yellow card. While OR’s were down to 14 players OC’s had an opportunity to get themselves back into the game. With the pressure all on OR’s try line it was inevitable that the Colf’s No 8 would force his way over for their second try. 10-21
With Long returning to the action Reigatian took control again and Talbot in his usual excellent ball carrying role managed to get a tip on pass away to Joe Gregson running a great angle to score the bonus point try 10-26.
Just before half time Fullback Sam Turner put through another great kick for again speedster Finn Coyle to chase through and add to his tally of tries again. Overtoom’s kick was good and the visitors lead 10-33 at half time.
Again this half started with the home side scoring first 17-33, once again this seemed to wake the team from Reigate up and from an attacking Line Out the forwards decided to take it on themselves with a driving maul. Seb Courtney -Walker fresh from the bench got his hands on the ball to score a forwards try and move the score to 17-40 with Overtoom’s kick.
OR’s good fortune took a turn for the worse firstly Oli Brooks being shown a yellow card for an offence at a ruck and then Jude Clark had to leave the field with a injured leg. This meaning Layzell moved to Hooker and Dan Jones stepping up to Loosehead Prop.
Obviously the Scrum was now under massive pressure and Reigatian were struggling to get hold of the ball Colf’s soon managed to get another score 22-40.
They kept up the pressure and were again pushing towards the Reigatian try line when a misjudged pass was collected by Max Coyle who set off down the left wing showing all defenders a clean pair of heels. This was Max’s 12th try as he tries to keep up with his younger brother on the try scoring stakes. Needless to say Overtoom added the conversion 22-47.
Just as OR’s were back to 15 players Sam Turner was sent to the sidelines for ten minutes. Defending with 14 players takes it out of a team and this was starting to show. Old Colfeians managed to score two tries in the last ten minutes to give a final score of 36-47. A solid performance considering the changes required before and during the game. Credit to Jones and Layzell for a huge effort up front.
1. Reilly Franklin-Talbot, 2.Jude Clark, 3. Mike Layzell, 4. Dan Jones, 5. Joe Gregson, 6. Sam Foreman, 7. Jonny Long, 8. Oli Brooks, 9. Alex Skinner, 10. Ben Holder, 11. Harrison Mitchell, 12. Lucas Overtoom, 13. Max Coyle, 14. Finn Coyle, 15. Sam Turner 16. Jack Baart, 17. Seb Courtney Walker, 18. Patrick White
