Dorking 59 – 33 North Walsham Vikings
Dorking made to work hard to repel the Vikings
By Kevin Beal
A battling North Walsham side made Dorking work hard at the Big Field in a match where both sides looked to play expansive rugby, and a total of fourteen tries were scored. Belying their position at the bottom of the league, the young Vikings side pressed Dorking hard and cracked open their defence with a couple of well fabricated tries, which combined with a somewhat harsh penalty try gave the home supporters a bit of a fright midway through the match.
Dorking opened with a flourish scoring two tries inside seven minutes through Will Sanders and Henry Smith, both converted by Craig Holland to give a comfortable 14-0 lead. With all the early possession and dominance in all areas of the game they looked to be in complete control, but Vikings had other ideas and hit back with a patiently constructed forwards try from Billy Tait, converted by Ross Magnus, to bring them back into the match. Moving the ball about and into space, Dorking responded with three tries in six minutes from Captain Jonny Ellis, Joe Andresen and Joel Grant, one of which Holland converted, before the game swung back Vikings way with a ‘whole team’ try from Harry Langbridge, who grew in confidence as the game progressed, a somewhat harsh penalty try a few minutes later as Tom Howe hauled Langbridge down on the Dorking 22 after he collected a loose Dorking pass, and a well worked try out wide from scrum half Connor Dudley taking advantage of the space created by Howe’s absence. The half finished with Dorking’s Captain Ellis bagging his second, converted by Holland to steady the ship: 38 – 26 at the half time whistle.
Dorking came out quickly in the second half retaining possession and spinning the ball wide, only for Viking’s Captain Dan Smith to intercept and streak away untouched to dab down under the posts. With Magnus’ conversion good, Dorking’s lead was cut to 5 points and the Viking’s tails were up. Undeterred by this, the Dorking pack upped their efforts and ensured a good supply of possession for the backs as Joel Grant, Jasper King and Fin Osborne punched holes in the Viking’s defence. This pressure eventually told with recent recruit Tom Bloomer crossing the line for his first try for the club, converted by Holland to restore the ten point differential. 43-33. From the re-start Dorking retained possession and continued the attack with the backs again spinning the ball back and forth across the pitch. Sadly, in one of these forays full back Cam Cowell badly injured his ankle as he offloaded the ball in the tackle following an electric 30 metre charge, and a lengthy stoppage ensued as the medics did their job. We all wish him a speedy recovery.
The pace then rather went out of the contest as cold hands caused errors to creep into both team’s games and Dorking ran in two more converted tries through Cal Watson, a beautifully executed lineout catch and drive from the forwards and Craig Holland, finishing off a move that started from a Dorking scrum on their 22m line. Final score 59-33
Dorking Director of Rugby Armand roux commented:
Pleased to get the 1st game after a 4 week break out of the way and could have easily been a banana skin for us.
We scored 60 points and we are looking at ourselves thinking we were slightly below par, so standards are high.
Our work rate and defence will get some attention this week before we host Barnes next week in what will be a great clash.
The game is slightly overshadowed by the loss of Cam Cowell but it’s a contact sport and injuries will happen. Cam is a fantastic athlete and highly competitive so we will see him back as soon as he can possibly do it I’m sure.
Star Player – Tom Howe
Referee Mr Conor Boyle
Dorking:
Cowell, Sanders, Howe, Andresen, McRae, Holland (vc), Smith, Bristow, Ellis (c), Stephenson, Chambers, King, Grant, Elbrow, Osborne
Replacements - Watson, Connor, Jardine, Bloomer, Jackson
North Walsham:
Hewitt, Steward, Smith (c), Magnus, McGuire, Langbridge, Dudley (vc), Weber, Kingdon, Clark, de Lucci, Tait, Langbridge, Brooks, Fethney (vc).
Replacements - Arnold, Brightman, Douglas, Coop, Kandemwa
Scoring
Dorking:
Tries
Sanders 05, Smith 07, Andresen 24, Ellis (2) 21, 40 Grant 27, Bloomer 55, Watson 65, Holland 75
Conversions
Holland (7) 06, 08, 22, 40, 56, 66, 76
North Walsham
Tries
Tait 14, Langbridge 33, Pen 35, Dudley 39, Smith 41
Conversions:
Magnus (3) 15, 39, 42
Attendance - 325
