Waterfall Cup Round 2 DRFC Colts vs Rosslyn Park
Following a hard fought victory against Old Ruts DRFC Colts were again on the road in round 2 of the Waterfall Cup.
Rosslyn Park is a famous rugby name and we had every reason to believe it was going to be a challenging encounter and thus it proved.
A sunny morning and playing on the Astro set the scene for a great game.
Both sides were evenly matched across all 15 positions and despite some good work to get close to Park’s line it took 17 minutes for Dorking to post their first points. A flowing backs move resulting from a series of hard won phases saw Will Darbishire score out wide. Kick missed 5-0.
Park continued to press and from a penalty they pushed towards our line and another infringement saw them crash over near the posts, kick scored 5-7.
The game continued to be nip and tuck with great aggressive play from Chris Styles, Alex Power and Henry Page with a few of his trademark barnstorming runs. The DRFC pack was also solid with the front five boys causing all sorts of problems (the no push after 1.5 metres was under severe strain!)
We agreed that we needed to score first in the second half and work a bit harder being, we felt, about 20% under par in the first half having had Will Simpson, Callum Powell and Charlie Nichol all come close to scoring.
There then followed a great 10 minute, 3 try period from Dorking. Great work again from the forwards lead by Eddie Monk and great work on the ground from Owen Rowlands and Sam Whittakar saw us win the rucking game, with Forbes being a nuisance on their ball, and great hands and direction from Oli Shep and Archie Shires (who was also immense in defence) saw flyer Toby Winslet score twice out wide (one converted).
Finishing off a great game Chris Styles was quickest to a loose ball and Dorking had scored again. 24 – 7.
Park however were not done and Dorking went to sleep a bit perhaps believing the game was won. Back came Park and from a mauled line out burst over to score from short range.
Dorking conceded another mid field penalty and once again succumbed to intense try line pressure seeing Park going over for another score. 24 – 17
Dorking did, at last, tighten up and were able to see the game out.
A tough competitive match which saw us come away with the second bonus point win on the road.
Round 3 against Esher is at home on the 13th November.
