Whits U16s faced Sutton and Epsom in the Surrey Cup final on a wet day in Reigate. As a top of the table cup clash, we were deemed worthy of a society ref, however our relief at this was short-lived. The drama started immediately when straight from the kick-off a strong carry and offload from Temi found its way to Daniel S, who set off down the blindside before being bundled into touch by a very high tackle. The player was upright and if the first contact may have brushed Daniel’s shoulder, the secondary and more fulsome contact was with his head. Not even a penalty was awarded however but less than a minute later and Ed was sin binned for a tackle where he clearly hinged 90 degrees at the hips and bent his legs but the attacker also carried in low and therefore both players clashed at head height. Ironically if Ed had stayed upright, both players would have been safer. It was a very harsh decision and a bold precedent to set from the ref in the 2nd minute of the game.
S&E were unable to take advantage of the penalty and Whits drove their way back up the field with superb handling in difficult conditions. With a man down, Whits received a penalty on the 22 and wisely decided to take the points to wind down the clock and build the scoreboard. Ty kicked successfully to put Whits 3-0 up. Whits spent the next few minutes controlling possession and winding down the clock until Ed returned.

From a breakdown inside the 22 Kerron broke free and looked certain to score but slipped on the 5m line with no one in front of him. From the breakdown another S&E penalty was conceded and this time Whits ran it with a set play, Morgan giving to Louis to change the angle of attack. Louis drove powerfully for the line but was stopped inches short. Temi followed up but the Sutton forwards were able to isolate him and turn the ball over.

From the resulting penalty Sutton kicked for touch from their try line but Kerron kept the ball in brilliantly, he popped to Ty, who gave it to Temi. Temi then carried the ball infield, drew the defender before slipping a lovely pass to Dan AP. Dan repeated the favour for Ed who then carried strongly, crashing into the centres. As he was tackled Ed popped an offload to Kaiden who also drew a defender before giving another pass to Muadh. Muadh had Seb on the wing supporting outside him but had only one thing on his mind, he outpaced the first defender and powered through two more to score the first try of the afternoon. It was a brilliantly worked team try, with half the team touching the ball before the try was scored. Ty slotted a difficult conversion with ease to leave the score at 10-0 to Whits.

10 minutes later and Whits crossed the line again. A well worked move from right to left with Dan AP and Josiah putting in some big carries to suck in defenders came back out to the right to Ty. Ty had several men outside him but crashed through the midfield, dragging defenders with him. It looked to all like he had grounded the ball, but the ref did not see it and called it held up.

For the next 10 minutes, Whits pinned Sutton in their half, despite contending with a steep slope on a wet pitch. The pack was dominant, losing no ground in the scrum and turning Sutton over in the line out on more than one occasion. It looked like they would finish the half without seeing their try line troubled but a rare S&E incursion into the Whits half earned a penalty on the 22. Sutton went to their biggest player on the crash ball, but Louis felled him expertly. Even so, Sutton worked it back out to the left where after a messy breakdown they flopped over the line. Whits flanker, Alex, was adamant that he had held the ball up with a superb bit of work, but the ref again gave the benefit of the doubt to Sutton. By now, Whits were beginning to feel aggrieved that every marginal call (and some less than marginal) was going against them and were starting to lose their composure. Sutton missed the conversion to leave the half time score at 10-5 in a game that Whits had dominated so far.

in the second half Whits were playing down the pitch and should have had the advantage. Temi kicked short and the ball was clearly knocked forward by a receiving S&E player standing on the 10. Despite this, the referee decided the ball had not gone 10 and bizarrely brought the ball back for a scrum to Sutton. It is a fundamental tenet of rugby that we respect the referee, and rightly so, they have a very difficult job, and we are not football hooligans. But the cumulation of questionable decisions going against Whits was making it very hard for the Whits players (and supporters) to stay quiet in this instance.

From this platform S&E were able to pile pressure onto the Whits defence, making strides into the Whits half thanks to a strong carry from their wing and some urgency at the breakdown. Whits were eventually saved by a knock-on 5 metres out, but the clearance from the kick was sliced and only made it to the 22. The ref called to Temi, playing flanker, to halt his run as he was offside, which Temi did immediately playing no further part in the next phase. Dan AP, playing centre and having started well behind the kicker, rightly made the tackle… but in doing so incurred a penalty to Sutton which was awarded where Temi had been standing. Clearly the referee had decided that Dan was Temi and that he had not stopped. It was not to be the last time that the referee mixed up the Whits players.

Whits managed to clear downfield but a penalty at the breakdown and then an accidental offside brought them straight back into their 22. From a scrum, S&E span it wide to their wing who was brilliantly tackled by winger Kai. Ty, playing at centre, looped round behind and was straight over the ball to brilliantly turn it over despite taking a shoulder to the head from a S&E player clearing out. This too the referee deemed illegal (the turnover, not the dangerous clear out), the only possible explanation being that he decided that Ty had made the tackle and had got up with the ball. S&E ran the penalty but a wall of Whits defenders drove him back before Sutton were eventually penalised for a double movement on the floor.

10 minutes later a Whits scrum on their own 22 was picked up by Kaiden who set off downfield carving and bludgeoning his way through the S&E back line, as he approached the Sutton 22 with no more defenders to beat and 3 Whits players in support, the ref blew the whistle to stop play for a push by Ed. There was much bemusement amongst both teams as no one had seen what the ref had seen. Thankfully Sutton provided us with their Veo footage afterwards as it was right in front of their camera. The so-called push occurred when one of the S&E tacklers had started to get up from the floor as Ed tried to avoid him following the attempted to tackle. With milliseconds to react, Ed brushed the player as he dodged him but in doing so, took himself out as a supporting player for Kaiden’s run. It was totally unavoidable, no advantage was gained to Whits yet this was deemed “foul play” worthy of ruling out a certain try. The ref was racking up a bingo card of bizarre decisions, but he was not done yet, he wanted a full house!

By now it was beginning to get dark and the floodlights on other pitches were being turned on, unfortunately there was no such luxury on this pitch! The whistle-happy ref and a number of stoppages to deal with minor knocks on the S&E team meant that matches on other pitches were being wrapped up but we still had another 20 minutes left!

A fantastic whole-team defensive set repelled another Sutton attack, Louis, Ed and Kaiden in particular were leading the charge with some crunching tackles. The pressure eventually turned the ball over and the forwards took charge, first Louis, then Kerron barrelled the ball up the pitch, drawing in defenders in a desperate attempt to halt their progress. With the rain pouring and the light fading, Sutton legs were beginning to tire leaving spaces for Whits lethal back line. Up stepped Dan AP to inject some pace, ripping through the heart of the S&E defence, taking the ball from the Whits 10m line to the edge of the opposition 22 before being stopped by a superb scramble defence. No matter, Kaiden was there in support to pick up Dan’s offload, bumping off a couple more defenders before slipping the ball to Ed. Ed now only had one player to beat and Seb and Muadh putting in a fantastic lung-bursting effort to be close in support. But the flagging defender did not have the legs to keep up with Ed who coasted in under the posts to score a well-deserved try. It was fitting that a player who had been on the receiving end of some contentious refereeing decisions was to score and a testament to Ed’s character that he played his heart out to the very last. Ty slotted the conversion to give Whits some breathing room at 17-5.

The relief in the team was clear but from the kick off they relaxed, conceding penalties for holding-on and offside. The latter earned Harry L a yellow card, not because his offside was particularly egregious, but due to the number of penalties accumulated. Such cards are usually reserved for when a team is defending its try line and is repeatedly infringing, causing the attacking team to be unfairly hindered. Here, with Whits defending halfway between the 10 and the 22, there was no obvious threat from the ruck. Furthermore, it was not obvious that Whits had been any more prolific in their penalty count than S&E. With another penalty conceded, Whits were now defending a lineout on their 5m, Temi brilliantly stole the ball with a tap back but the ball bounced awkwardly over the line and a chasing S&E player pounced before stand-in scrum half, Daniel S could get to it. Daniel has high standards and blamed himself for the try but this was clearly not his mistake, with a succession of errors inviting pressure and leading Whits to this point. The conversion was made to put the pressure back on Whits at 17-12
As the light begin to vanish there was enough time for a final Sutton attack and another refereeing mess up. Sutton spread is wide to the right wing where Joseph made what looked like a superb ty-saving tackle. Neither the Whits nor Sutton Veo’s showed whether the initial contact was above sternum height but since the attacker was stooped, his shoulders barely at waist height, Joseph could have been forgiven for making contact with his upper body. No matter, the ref deemed it a high tackle worthy of a yellow and promptly sin binned Daniel S. No, that’s not a typo, a completely different player, different height, hairstyle and complexion, both wearing their names on their backs.

Sutton chose a scrum for their penalty, an odd decision given the Whits dominance at the set piece, and Whits promptly drove them back. To compound matters the S&E scrum half then went down the blindside and with only 5m to work with it was unsurprising to see the Whits back row, with Ty filling in at Daniel’s position on the blindside, bundle Sutton into touch to leave a final score of 17-12 to Whits.

This was a great show of character for this Whits team, time and again they refuse to give in, fearsome in defence and rampant in their support of each other. Despite some “harsh” refereeing decisions, they did not loose their cool, playing their game to the end and behaving with dignity in the face of significant adversity. If it is any small consolation, we are unlikely to face this ref again any time soon and for this we should be grateful. Well done boys, you should be proud of yourselves.