Dorking 36 – 33 Tonbridge Juddian
By Kevin Beal
King Leads the Way in Second Half Revival
A second half revival including two tries from Jasper King saw Dorking home in a pulsating top of the table game at The Big Field. In a match that was the proverbial ‘game of two halves’, informed in part by a strong southerly wind, the try count was equal at five apiece with the winning margin coming from a Henry Anscombe penalty late in the second half.
Dorking chose to kick off, playing downhill but into the wind and were ahead within five minutes as prop Henry Birch was on hand to scoop up Tom Howe’s chip through on the 22 and showing a great turn of speed outsprinted the chasing defenders to the line for the opening score. Kicking low into the wind, Anscombe’s conversion was charged down 5-0.
Parity in the set piece scrum and robust defence from both teams kept play in the midfield until TJ’s fly half Thomas White decided to use the prevailing wind and forced Dorking back into their own half – where play remained for most of the remainder of the half. With their tails up, TJ’s forwards, fronted by some sniping runs from hooker Holling were causing problems for the Dorking defence, but it was winger Howard Packman who broke the deadlock on a turnover ball with a storming run through the midfield to touch down under the posts. With White’s conversion a formality, they were 5-7 in the lead.
TJ’s returned the kick off with interest, straight to Finn Osborne who took the ball back into contact but the move stalled and TJ’s retained the ball following George Jackson’s box kick. Keeping the home team pinned in their half with a combination of touchline kicks and blitz defence, the visitor’s forwards, despite some heroic Dorking defence turned the screw with two further tries both featuring their trademark lineout catch and drive. First over the line was prop Reece Conlon who emerged from the bottom of the rolling maul to claim the score as the match entered the second quarter, and then on the stroke of half time, winger Duncan Tout was on hand to take the scoring pass from the back of the maul to make the score 5-21. In between Dorking were unable to break the stranglehold and spent much of the time on the back foot defending, interspersed with the odd foray, swiftly rebuffed, into TJ territory.
Dorking started the second half as they had the first, with a try inside five minutes from Howe as King, Anscombe and Joe Andresen combined to create space in the TJ defence for him to slip through. With Anscombe’s conversion good, Dorking were back in the hunt. Using the wind to pin TJ’s in their own half, Dorking’s forwards led by Finn Osborne, Daragh Chambers and Adam Musa pressured the visitor’s line but in the face of strong defence were unable to score until taking a leaf from the TJ playbook, captain Jonny Ellis was shunted over for a converted try following a series of lineout catch and drives to bring them to within two points. It was then TJ’s turn to apply pressure as the sniping Holling was over for a pick and go try of his own, converted by White in the face of a swirling wind. Was the conversion good? ‘No’, said the 400 or so Dorking faithful, ‘yes’ said all three officials, and TJ’s moved back to a more comfortable 9 point lead.
The final twenty minutes belonged to Dorking as King led the way with his two tries. The first came from a sprint to the line to touch down under the posts as Dorking retained the ball from the re-start taking the score to 26-28. This seemed to spur the side on and with jackal supremo Tom Bloomer turning the ball over at will in the loose they won a penalty on the TJ 22. With seemingly only a few minutes left in the match, Anscombe calmly slotted the ball between the uprights to give a slender 29-28 lead. In what then seemed like the dying seconds of the match, Dorking were awarded a further penalty again within kicking distance, and after consultation with Sir on how much time was actually left, they opted to kick to the corner. King’s second, again close to the posts came after the catch and drive from the ensuing line out, and with the conversion good Dorking had what looked like an unassailable 36-28 lead. TJ’s had other ideas though and retaining the ball at the re-start spun the ball wide to Duncan Trout who was able to evade a tiring Dorking defence to score. Realising that his team needed a second score and that time was running out, kicker White hurried, and missed the conversion. 36-33.
And that’s how it stayed as Anscombe kicked the re-start deep into the TJ 22, and the visitors, knowing that the game would be over at the next stoppage mounted an attack by spinning the ball out wide - where it was intercepted by Will Sanders, who almost made the break through to the line but was tackled short, allowing George Jackson to punt the ball into touch for the end of the match.
Final score Dorking 36-33 Tonbridge Juddian.
Director of Rugby, Armand Roux commented
‘I was immensely proud of the team today, overcoming a 16 point deficit at half time. We stuck to our game plan and made the conditions work in our favour, with the whole squad contributing. Credit too to TJ’s who were immense in both attack and defence and pushed us all the way
Tom Howe, Tom Bloomer and Daragh Chambers played some great rugby today with Jasper King stepping up a level to earn Man of the Match.
The Dorking crowd was also immense today in some testing conditions, thank you
Next up for us is Esher, so we will be focussing on them straight away as we will be
’
Star Player - Jasper King (Dorking)
Teams:
Dorking:
Andresen, Sanders, Howe, Mosley, McRae, Anscombe, Jackson, Birch, Ellis ©, Stephenson, Chambers, King, Grant, Bloomer, Osborne. Replacements - Connor, Bristow, Musa, Gwyther, Holland
Tonbridge Juddian:
Taylor-Dennehy, Packman, Osgood, White, Tout, Evans, Petrozzi L, Whitmarsh, Holling, Conlon, Scopes, Munnelly, Sullivan, Nicholl ©, Colderick, Replacements - Much, Boon, Hayes, Koomson, Petrozzi M.
Referee: Mr Phil Russell
Attendance: 520
Scorers:
Dorking
Tries – Birch (5), Howe (45), Ellis (55), King (70, 78)
Conversions - Anscombe ( 46, 56, 71,79)
Penalties – Anscombe (77)
Tonbridge Juddian:
Tries – Packman (20), Conlon (24), Tout (45, 79), Holling (58),
Conversions – White (21, 25, 46, 59)
