Sep 24

Written by: Richard Drage
24/09/2008 07:16

Reigate’s opening league game of the 2008/09 season saw them travel the short distance to Mitcham RFC. In unseasonably warm weather, Reigate hoped that their lighter pack and a desire to spread the ball wide would serve them well and the start of the match seemed to support their hypothesis. With both sides struggling to make inroads against well marshalled defences, matters were all-square around the twenty minute mark with each side sharing a penalty kick to leave the scores at 3-3.

Mitcham then crossed the white-wash for the first of the day’s tries. Lining up to go right at a centrally positioned scrum just outside the 22, Mitcham’s back-line switched positions and flooded the left side of the field. Moving the ball quickly from back-row through to their half-backs, the Reigate right-winger, Drage, was caught out of position. A well-placed mis-pass from the Mitcham stand-off found his left winger unmarked with the simple job of finishing unopposed.

With the conversion missed and Reigate’s immediate response limited to a penalty, the scores sat at 8-6 in Mitcham’s favour. As half-time approached, some excellent forward play by the Reigate pack enabled them to recycle possession quickly on the left hand side of the field and following some swift passing down the back-line, Drage had a chance to atone from his previous positional failings. Resisting the attentions of 3 would-be tacklers en route, the Reigate winger cruised down the touchline displaying a potent mixture of balance and ballast, power and pace, scoring in the right-hand corner. The try was unconverted leaving the score at half-time as 8-11 in Reigate’s favour.

The second half remained a tightly fought encounter but the visitor’s hopes were buoyed when a yellow card reduced the Mitcham ranks to fourteen for a ten-minute spell. In what was to prove a turning point in the game, Reigate were unable to utilise their advantage and despite putting considerable pressure on the Mitcham line with a couple of 5-yard scrums, the home defence held strong.

With the return of their offender, Mitcham pushed upfield. With fresh legs on in the centre, Mitcham exposed some frailties in the Reigate defence as their new man crashed over after some poor Reigate tackling. Shortly after Mitcham’s 2nd try, a turnover ball close to the Reigate line was whipped away by the Mitcham scrum-half to a charging fly-half who crossed for a further score. With the two quick-fire scores, one of which was converted, leaving the scre at 20-11, Reigate pushed to put points on the board. As Reigate pressed to claw their way back into the game, Mitcham played with abandon and some fine passages of play by the home team led to two further scores as the game drew to a close.

Despite the disappointment of an opening loss, Reigate will take heart from a score-line that flattered their hosts and hope that the sense of élan with which they played for prolonged passages will see them please the league scorers as much as the rugby purists on the touchline.

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