Latest Match Reports
Croydon pip the Park
Croydon under 17’s took on Raynes Park in the league almost recovered from their easter tour to Holland. once again there were key personnel missing with injury and work commitments but were confident after beating the opposition at their place a few weeks earlier. The early exchanges were even, RP seemed happier to keep the ball tight and drive up the middle with their larger forwards, Croydon happier to spin the ball wider when the opportunity arose. Croydon were able to take play down field when RP were penalised for divign over at a ruck then disputing the penalty for a further 10 yards. The home forwards drove into their 22, some nifty handling by forwards and backs, number 8 Salvidge popped to scrum half Ryan who fed Ben Smith in the centre who was able to beat his man and stretch for the line, the conversion by full back Henderson was good.
From the restart RP put Croydon under pressure in their half and prop Raynor tried to sneak in at the side of a ruck, was spotted and from the resulting penalty the RP flyhalf slotted the 3 points to reduce the defecit. The next 10 minutes were quiet tight with Croydon allowing too many easy yards around the base by missing first up tackles but looking more dangerous when running their own ball. One of these phases took the home side to the 22 metre where great handling by fly half Warsop, centres Smith and Blake gave winger Carl (Shrimp) Shrimpton the space to touch down for his first ever try, the conversion attempt narrowly missed. Half time score Croydon 12-3 RP.
The second half saw RP come out with more determination and kept Croydon in their own half for long periods, strangely it was from a break out that Croydon conceded, 2nd row Simons came out of a ruck with the ball just over half way, crabbed accross field, ignoring the overlap only to knock on in the tackle, RP collected and span left, home winger Holmes was left with 2 on 1, took his time to decide who to tackle, the RP centre dummied and went fed his winger, full back Will Curtis (on at half time so Henderson could move to fly half) looked set to make the cover tackle but collided with his own man to allow the winger a free run to the posts for a converted try, an almost comical 60 seconds of play.
With the advantage now only 2 points Croydon at last began to dominate territory and keep the ball better, after a few minutes of probing again the backs found enough space to confidently move the ball through all hands, unselfish play by Blake who may have made it himself but fed to winger Holmes to make amends for his earlier indeciveness, the conversion was missed.
RP came back but were now tiring as Croydon;s superior fitness began to tell, after 10 minutes of stalemate, number 8 Salvidge picked up at the base of a scrum on half way. spotted the gap and as has been the case so many times this season, the rest is history with a trail of failed tacklers in his wake touched down under the posts, Henderson made the conversion. With breathing space Croydon now enjoyed their best spell of the match, from a penalty deep in their own half skipper Wilds looked before tapping, saw the gaps on the right, fed Salvidge who did what he does best, beat the full back and touched down under the posts for a converted try.
Final score Croydon 31-10 Raynes Park.
Coach Golding said; A hardfought win, the score did flatter us a little with those two late tries, full credit to Raynes Park who played good hard 10 man rugby, our previous encounters had been a little fractious to say the least but both teams turned up to play. The boys did well, our line out was taken apart as never before, i felt we missed too many first up tackles in the 1st half allowing them to build up steam but the boys buckled down in the 2nd half and nailed their men and apart from a 10 minute spell of pressure coped well with their physical threat. Extremely pleased with the handling, the backs deserve enormous credit as does their coach Steve Ryan for making such good use of the limited ball they had and to score 3 backs tries was pleasing.
A few areas to work on before our next league match away at Cranleigh on April 13th.
