Whits U16s travelled to Chipstead for their final group match of the Surrey cup on a cold November afternoon. Whits had already beaten the hosts in a closely fought friendly match in October and edged them in the cup last season, it promised to be an exciting match!

From the kick-off, Chips targeted a short kick but failed to make 10. From the resulting scrum, Whits went right to Ty who popped it back inside to Dan AP who had come round from the left on a loop. It was a well-rehearsed move and gave Dan half a yard of space to work his magic. Dan rarely needs much space to cause damage to the opposition, in fact he often prefers running over defenders rather than into space, but on this occasion, he danced his way through the opposition defence stepping one, fending another and shrugging off several more to run half the length of the pitch and score underneath the posts. Ty made the conversion to give Whits a 7-0 lead within 2 minutes of the kick off.

Whits were camped in the opposition half, attacking relentlessly against a desperate Chips defence. Time after time they broke the line, only for the final pass to go to hand or to concede a penalty at the breakdown. Eventually a series of Whits penalties allowed Chipstead to briefly to venture into the Whits half, but the fierce Whits defence repelled them and took them back to their 22.

A dangerous Whits attack saw Seb bundled into touch and from the lineout Chips carried back into midfield, Chips cleared downfield and as Muadh ran forward to catch, he missed the ball and it came off his shins. Chips called for a knock-on, but even in real time it was clear that he had not touched it with his hands, and so it was proven later on the video. Muadh then pressured the defender and won the ball back before Whits worked it down the line to centre Dan AP. With the Chips defence out of shape having chased the kick, Dan had a much easier run in for the line with “only” a couple of defenders to beat this time. He touched the ball down with one hand causing the ball to bobble as he did so. Again, the Chips coaches were howling for knock on and the referee had to speak to 2 of them about their behaviour. Ty slotted another conversion to give Whits a 14-0 lead. The aggrieved Chips were stung into action, aided by several penalties against the visitors they carried back down field and from a well worked short ball to their big forward bundled over to the left of the posts. The kick was missed to leave the score at 14-5.

Whits were straight back at the home side and again camped out in the Chips half. A great pick-up from the base of the scrum by Kaiden carried the ball to the 5 before he was tackled, Chips infringed at the break down and Morgan reacted quickly to take a tap. The Chips defence were less than a metre away, instead of the required 10 and it should have resulted in a penalty again to Whits but the ref missed it and when the ball was eventually turned over and he allowed play to continue. Strangely, there were no coaching protestations at this refereeing “mistake”. The ball was hoofed downfield but there was to be no reprieve for the beleaguered home defence as Ty gathered the ball and ran it back hard into the chasers, he bounced the first 2, shrugged off the third before being tackled by the fourth and fifth. Harry slipped the ball right to Temi, who popped to Morgan who then floated a long pass over to Kaiden. Kaiden stepped off his right before accelerating through the gap between the 2 centres, he stepped the full back before scoring on the 15m line. Whits 19-5.

In both games that Whits have played, Chips tried to go short at the restarts to win the ball back. This tactic repeatedly failed but it did not discourage them from trying. So it was again at the restart after Ty’s conversion drifted wide. Another short kick targeted at Morgan did not go 10m, giving Whits a scrum on the halfway. From the scrum, Harry L shaped to go left but quickly shifted play right to Ed. Ed carried hard into contact and Dan AP cleared out giving Harry clean ball again to Temi, Temi made ground before being tackled but popped off the floor to Seb who again made metres before slipping the ball to Dan AP. Dan carried again, was tackled but Whits were there first to give quick ball again. This time it came to Kaiden on the 10m line, Kaiden set off at pace, weaving and fending his way to the 22m line on the left-hand side, this time the ball came out right to Whits’ other try-scoring machine, Dan AP. Dan stepped, bumped and shrugged his way through another 3 defenders to score to the left of the posts and complete his hattrick only 30 minutes into the match. Ty made the conversion to give Whits a 26-5 lead.

Chips had now learned their lesson and went long to the other side of the pitch. Danield S gathered the ball comfortably before being stopped by a high tackle. Unfortunately, Chips stole the ball from the ensuing lineout and carried the ball back. 2 Whits high tackles back-to-back took Chipstead to the Whits 5m line for only the second time in the half. Chips then spread the ball wide to their other wing btu Muadh tackled him superbly. Chips moved the ball back in field and who was there to crash over but former Whitgiftian, Max. The conversion was successful to leave the score at 26-12 to Whits as the ref blew for half time.

The start of the second half was a stop start affair with a series of penalties and knock-ons against both teams. It took 10 minutes and a refereeing mistake to bring the half to life. The ref incorrectly called Ty offside on a kick-chase, the resulting penalty put Chipstead comfortably inside the Whits 22, they began to move the ball up and down their line but could not get through the Whits defenders and over the gain-line, indeed after repeated attempts they had been pushed back outside of the 22. Chips came again with their big number 8, Max, but Louis stopped him dead in his tracks with a superb tackle. Max offloaded to the scrum half who had run on at pace and created an overlap, the 9 tried to ship it wide but had not banked on the 8ft reach of Kaiden who plucked the ball from the air on the 22 and set off down the Chipstead hill like a runaway freight train. The Chips defence put in an admirable chase and Muadh and Daniel S made a fantastic effort to keep stay with Kaiden in case they were successful but, in the end, there was no catching the flying Winger/Centre/Eight/Lock and he touched down under the posts. Ty converted to put Whits 33-12 in front.

The Chips team were clearly deflated by this try, they had put in a big effort to get a toehold in the game and if they had succeeded then who knows whether this would have given them the confidence to push on. Still, they came back from the kick off, driving up to the 22 only to be turned over by Ty. Ty carried back superbly to the half-way before offloading from the tackle to Morgan, Morgan then carried and offloaded to Temi who did the same to Daniel S, Daniel took the ball into contact and was supported by Alex and Louis, the quick ball came out to Ed who spotted that the Chips defence was totally out of shape and dinked a lovely kick into the back field where the fullback should have been. The Chips winger bravely chased back but the ball bobbled as it crossed the try line and who was there to pounce on it but Kaiden to complete his hattrick. Whits 38-12.

On a bitterly cold afternoon Whits wingers were having to find work to keep themselves warm, in particular, Muadh looked like his fingers might shatter if he tried to catch a ball. Even so twenty minutes into the half, a Whits scrum won the ball and Ed carried to the Whits 10m line in the middle of the pitch. His pass was loose and bobbled in front of Muadh’s feet halfway between the 10 and the 22. Chips could have been forgiven for thinking there was little danger here, but they would have been wrong. Muadh picked the ball up and with his characteristic acceleration beet the first and second defenders, his power beat the third and fourth who bounced off him as they attempted to tackle him. The right winger had tracked across the field, but he too was beaten for pace and Muadh finally cruised in under the posts to score with his typical “Ash-splash”. Whits 43-12.

Chips carried on fighting to the end but Whits had the last word. A great bit of play by Kegan recovered the ball inside the Whits half and set up a Whits counter-attack that was only stopped by a high tackle on rampaging front rower, Yan. The penalty inside the 22 was kicked cross field by Temi, Seb chased superbly and forced the defenders to dive over the ball, Morgan took the quick tap, shaped to go himself but drew the defenders before slipping the ball wide to Harry L who scored a very well deserved try in the corner. Ty slotted a difficult conversion for the final act of the game, Whits 50 – 12 Chipstead.

The victory leaves Whits top of their group and facing local rivals, Sutton and Epsom at Old Reigatians on the 3rd December, all supporters very welcome!

Tries
Dan AP (3)
Kaiden (3)
Muadh
Harry L
Conversions: Ty (5)