After the sobering experience of the previous week against Cranleigh we had a chance to make amends in our second league game on the well-travelled road to Reigate. We had played them in a pre-season friendly a few weeks ago and came away with a narrow win so were expecting another tight match.
Our warm-up was pretty good and we are getting more intensity so we are in the mood to start the game at pace. Reigate are much changed after a merger with Chipstead and we seemed to have a noticeable advantage in size and strength. The forward pods on which we had worked during the week seemed to work well and we took the lead when Jesse crashed over from close range. Reigate then took full advantage of a loose bit of play and a turnover to take the lead but we continued to pile on the pressure particularly in the scrum and Jude scored a great individual try converted by Callum. Continued pressure upfront led to further tries from Issac and Jesse before the break before Reigate pulled a try back leaving us with a 24-12 lead at half time.
We had put so much pressure on their scrum at set plays that we moved to uncontested scrums in the second half as they had run out of props. We came out with the same intensity and renewed purpose at the start of the second half and Joe and Sam Ohene both crashed over after continued pressure from the forwards. Reigate started to tire and we remained comfortably on top with Rhian and Harvey putting a further gloss on the scoreline for a final win by 48-12.
Positives
• The pack in particular took full advantage of their physical superiority with total dominance in the set pieces and loose play. We simply wore them down over the course of 80 mins and they had very little answer to our power.
• Pods were much improved – going in in 2s and 3s meant we rarely lost our own ball and set up a number of scoring opportunities. A huge improvement from the previous week even if we were under less pressure
• Our defence was pretty good throughout – some really crunching tackles , improved line speed led to a number of turnovers and the pressure meant Reigate were not really able to get a toehold in the game..
Work Ons
• Although we di have physical dominance in the pack and scored a lot of points from it, we created less along the back line. Decision making was not always as sharp as it could be in terms of scanning the field and the ball rarely got to the wingers with any space even when we had sucked in the defence, which had created openings out wide.
• We need to compete more for the ball at line outs and rucks. Our own line outs were solid throughout but we put less pressure on theirs which could have turned over more ball given our dominance
Although Reigate were not as strong as Cranleigh this was nonetheless an excellent performance. Our structure was much improved and we saw the benefit of the work done on the training pitch on pods and scrums. The physical effort was first rate and they never really let up from start to finish. Well done boys