Dorking 50 – 24 Old Albanian
Flying Finn leads the way
By Kevin Beal
Dorking ran out comfortable winners outscoring their visitors by 8 tries to 4 in an enthralling match at The Big Field. Finn Osborne and Will Sanders led the way with two tries apiece, supplemented by one each from Joe Andresen, Toby McRae, Jasper King and Joel Grant. OA’s reply came from Atta Aquil, Ben Charnock, Archie Randavanovic and Barry Thomas as the visitors kept in the game with inventive handling and some driving forward play.
Dorking broke the initial deadlock after 15 minutes of evenly matched play as following an OA lineout misthrow, George Jackson pounced on the loose ball, wrong footed his opposite number and slipped the ball to the supporting Osborne to power over from 5 metres out. Three further unopposed tries in quick succession from Sanders, Andresen and a second for Osborne then effectively sealed the game for the home team at 26-0 by the 30 minute mark. The first of these, from Sanders came after a period of sustained pressure as he collected a balanced kick through following an OA deliberate knock on to dab down in the bottom right hand corner. With the miscreant collecting a yellow card, Dorking made the man advantage count as firstly Andresen, and then Osborne went over under the posts, both tries coming from ‘whole team’ moves as the home team worked through their play-book. Back up to full strength, the OA’s defensive line held firm and they pressed the Dorking defence with some skilful moves of their own before King stole the ball in the tackle and Howe cleared the danger. Collecting and returning the ball, OA’s full back Andrew Nurse spotted space deep behind the rushing defence and slotted a pinpoint accurate kick through for winger Aquil to chase and collect to touch down unopposed for their first try. With Sam Jones’ conversion good it was 26-7. Galvanised by this, and mounting several promising attacks from the kick off, OA’s were unlucky to be called back for a forward pass when the Dorking cover defence was spread thinly. From the resulting set piece scrum, Dorking were back on the attack and forced a penalty. Opting for the kick to corner and line out they again pressured the OA line before conceding a knock on. But OA’s were unable to control the set piece scrum, the home side regained possession and Sanders was over in the corner for his second. With Anscombe off the field, Craig Holland stepped up to slot the conversion from the touchline, making the half time score a comfortable 33-7.
The second half was, in points scored an even affair with 17 apiece. OA’s started strongly, camping on the Dorking line for almost 10 minutes as the forwards battered away with successive pick and drives. The home side held out, but yielded penalty after penalty for straying offside, all of which the visitors chose to tap and go. Eventually the pressure told with a close range unconverted try for no8 Charnock, and a ‘team yellow’ for Osborne, adjudged by Ma’am to have committed the latest of the multiple offences. Dorking’s reply was to play 14 man rugby across the whole pitch; pressure which eventually told for the try of the afternoon as Jackson broke from the base of a scrum on the halfway line, fed to Tom Bloomer in support who punched his way up field and fed the hard charging McRae out wide on the left wing. With Holland’s conversion wide it was 38-12. Further Dorking pressure from the re-start forced OA’s on the defensive for the next 10 minutes, only broken when Tom Howe showed just how quick he is out of the blocks to break through and release Osborne with King in support. The two biggest men on the field were no match for the cover defence and King was able to canter round to touch down near the posts giving an easy conversion for Holland. 45-12.
As the match moved into the closing 10 minutes, OA’s returned to the Dorking 22 and as the forwards, led by Charnock pummelled the line, flanker Radavanovic worked his way over for a converted try out wide. 45-17. At the re-start, some aerial ping pong between the full backs eventually saw Dorking in possession and a set piece scrum on the OA’s 22 metre line. Picking up from the base of the scrum, Osborne charged through the OA defence with Joel Grant in support to receive the scoring pass for Dorking’s final score of the afternoon, making their tally an impressive 50 points. There was just time left for the match to re start, and in the final move of the game OA’s Bailey Thomas outpaced the Dorking defence for OA’s deserved bonus point try.
Final score Dorking 50-24 Old Albanian
DoR Armand Roux commented:
‘Overall I’m really pleased with our performance today.
We know that it was not a perfect performance, but we are stringing together some good periods of play, which I am really proud of.
There was a few defensive sets in there that was very gritty and that to me is a real judge of our character.
I thought that we had some great individual performances with Tom Howe and Finn Osborne really hitting their strides today.
Amazing support in front of a fantastic crowd which included so many old Dorking players.
Dorking:
Andresen, Sanders, Howe, Anscombe, McRae, Holland, Jackson, Birch, Ellis (c), Bristow, Chambers, King, Howorth, Bloomer, Osborne.
Replacements- Musa, Connor, Goodfellow, Grant, Hotston
Old Albanian:
Nurse, Aquil, Jones S, Jones L, Ricci, Wicks, Thomas, Holland, Bond, Sterling, Kingswell-Watts, Illeston (c), Radavanovic, Barnes, Charnock.
Replacements-Fleckney, Harris, Curtis, Alexander, Oluwayesi
Star Man – Finn Osborne – Dorking
Referee – Ms Holly Wood
Scoring:
Dorking
Tries – Osborne 15 & 32, Sanders 19 & 39, Andresen 24, McRae 57, King 67, Grant 79
Conversions – Anscombe 16 24 33, Holland 40, 67
OA’s
Tries – Aquil 37, Charnock 50, Radavanovic 76, Thomas 80
Conversions - Jones S 38, 76
Attendance - 485
Photo Credits - John Watkins and Chris Ross
