Latest Match Reports
Croydon get stuck in the mud
The under 17’s took to the field for their away league match at Cranleigh,
slightly under strength but in good fettle to notch the win that would have
guaranteed them second place in the league. They arrived in good time and
began the warm up in fine spring sunshine. Wthin minutes the whole
complexion of the match was to change when a heavy hail storm began to
batter down assisted by thunder and lightning. After enduring it for a few
minutes both teams were forced to abandon their warm ups and flee for the
safety of the changing room. This caused the KO to be delayed by 20 minutes
and crucially for the match to be moved from their 1st team pitch to the
boggy swampland over the road.
The match eventually kicked off and the early exchanges were fairly even
with handling mistakes from both sides a plenty, understandable in the
conditions, Croydon centre Blake was forced off after 5 minutes with a rib
injury which forced a back line reshuffle with Sam Curtis moving from full
back to centre and James Lyell replacing him. Croydon began to take some
control, managing to get their handling game going despite the conditions
with only determined tackling keeping them out. After some great bursts by
2nd rows Simons and Thornton led to a scrum 10 metres out from the Cranleigh
line, hooker Bayford nicked one against the head, number 8 Salvidge was able
to beat his opposite man and slide in from 3 metres out to score an
unconverted try. Croydon were now enjoying their best spell with great
passing and movement all over the pitch, another great thrust saw great work
from the backs, flanker Golding popped up in the centres to send a seemingly
try scoring pass to winger Shrimpton only for it to be dropped with the line
beckoning. Croydon stepped up the pressure, Cranleigh defence was creaking,
from another fine burst by 2nd row Simons, the backs got the 2nd phase ball,
got spun to centre Ben Smith, as he darted to the line, that winger
Shrimpton lost his footing and managed to bring Smith down yards short. Half
time came with the visitors 5-0 up.
Second half was a far different story, the larger home pack came out
revitalised and took control pinning Croydon in their own half with maul
after maul, Croydon were having trouble getting the ball and started
conceding penalties. From one Cranleigh moved the ball left, the Croydon
defence was slow to react, there was a maul some 5 yards out from which the
home 8 was able to burst over in the corner for an unconverted try to level.
This woke Croydon up. They managed to force a scrum on half way.
Salvidge, despite being hampered with a dead leg was able to pick up round
the back row and make it into the 22 before being tackled by the full back.
Winger Holmes was on hand to take the pop and just ground the ball in the
corner for his third try in as many games, the conversion was missed. This
spurred the home side to fling all they had at Croydon, thrust after thrust
and maul after maul took them into the 22, eventually the prop was able to
plop over from yards out under the posts, the conversion was good. Croydon
knew time was against them but could not get good enough position to launch
any further meaningful attacks, Cranleigh with their noses in front were
able to kick themselves down field and held for a 2 point victory 12-10.
Coach Golding said afterwards...A strange game of two half’s, we seemed to
be in control at half time and those two missed opportunities came back to
haunt us, fair play to Cranleigh, they probably deserved it for their 2nd
half performance, a limited game plan but effective in those conditions. Too
many errors, wrong decision making at half back cost us, just do not know
how to grind out results. Cannot fault anyone, the effort was there just
conditions did not suit and were unable to change our game to suit. On the
plus side was encouraged by the performances of prop Goodyear, only his
third game for us but did well in the scrum despite leaving his boots at
home and having to prop in mud in trainers, his replacement Benson did well,
stole 2 or 3 balls in the loose and put in some big tackles. Especially
pleased for flankers Wilds and Golding who came in for some criticism after
the last game but both responded maturely by doing as I asked and having
their best games of the season
