Dorking vs Old Reigatians Match Report – 24 November
After the road trip to Canterbury last week, Dorking Colts had a rather shorter drive along the A25 to local rivals Old Reigatians for a ‘friendly’ on Sunday. Dorking arrived in good spirits, welcoming back two of their National Cup-winning squad, Will Elkeles and Tom Harper, for effectively their first real colts rugby this year.
Dorking lost the toss and ORs decided to play with the wind, which just happened to be Storm Bert blowing straight down the field. This did not deter Dorking as they dominated the early exchanges. Dorking were moving the ball through multiple phases, using the full width of the field. Eventually, with the defence stretched, Toby de la Hoyde broke through the centres and a lovely grubber kick held up in the dead ball area for winger Sam Cox to win the race to the ball and touch down. 5-0
Dorking continued to move the ball through the phases, although ORs were battling hard at the breakdown and defending really well around the fringes. Eventually the pressure told as Charlie Aldridge made another break in the ORs 22 to feed prop Freddie Webb to step between two defenders and score to the left of the posts. With the conversion bouncing back of the post, the score remained 10-0.
Dorking then, inexplicably, took the foot off the gas. With ORs competing hard at the scrum, Dorking lost possession at the base and, with time seeming to stand still, the ORs flanker simply picked up the ball and ran through unopposed to score. 10-7
Dorking responded almost immediately with an excellent team try. After a couple of penalties in quick succession, Dorking kicked to the corner to set up a strong driving maul, which ORs held up just short of the line. After a couple of further phases, Charlie Aldridge made another lovely break and fed Cox, who still had a lot of work to do. In a man of the match performance, the winger stepped inside his opposite number and another defender and sprinted clear to score to the right of the posts. 15-7
Despite playing into the very strong wind, Dorking weren’t done yet with the first half. Pinning ORs back in their own 22, replacement scrum half Tom Ridges almost scored from a darting break. On hand was prop Thomas da Iocovo, reacting quickest and diving over the breakdown to score. 20-7 at the break.
Playing with the hurricane-force wind in the second half seemed to unsettle Dorking and the game became a something of an arm wrestle. Good ground was made by both sides in attack only for it to be cancelled out by strong defence in the red zones. Unfortunately, a long injury break further disrupted the flow of the game.
On resumption Dorking showed greater attacking flair, from 40 meters out the ball was moved through the backs to the right touchline before good inter play between backs and forwards shifted back to the left where a chip ahead by Rufus Graham-Maw on the wing rolled agonisingly out in touch and goal.
Another counter-attack by Ellis Long resulted in a chip and chase, which the ORs full back won but appeared to miss the grounding before Ellis touched down, however it was ruled a drop out by the referee. The Dorking attack was now gaining momentum but the points were not flowing.
Jai Kamaluddin came close from a five metre pick and drive and Ryan Kelly grounded the ball from a five metre tap penalty, however the referee was unsighted and the try was chalked off. Eventually a classy move from 40m out by the Dorking backs shifting the ball quickly from left to right resulted in de la Hoyde racing over from 30 metres out to score under the posts. Long added the conversion to make it 27-7. It was a long time coming and proved to be the last score of the game.
The remainder of the action saw ORs trying to run the ball from all areas of the field only to be repelled by the Dorking defensive system and some fantastic individual tackles, which will still be felt today.
ORs eventually got to within a couple of metres only to be stopped by further strong defence and the final whistle. Final score 27-7 and yet another impressive performance in very difficult conditions, from a team growing with every game and learning from their experiences.
