Apr 16

Written by: Richard Drage
16/04/2010 16:22

Match Report by coach, Chris Venn.

Saturday's match against Wandsworthians marked the end of our Surrey 4 league season. I am sure that there are some who will review our seasons efforts negatively. Having been relegated from Surrey 3 amongst some there was an expectation that we woul'd bounce straight back up, I for one was hoping that this may be the case when taking on the coaching role. In fact it could well have happened if we had managed to maintain our form and been consistent. As it was our year has been pockmarked by some magnificent rugby and more than one or two fabulous tries. We have dominated periods of play against every team in the league but when it mattered, just fell short. Games against Guidford, Economicals and Glynonians getting away from us by single scores. Even though we were blessed by the introduction of players such as Chris Harrison, Dec Donnelly, Lee Cartwright and my former Reigatians colleague Gary Baker, we still lacked numerical strength to maintain an effective challenge week in week out. We are already looking towards next year and will start by taking a good long look at what we need to do to be more competitive next year.



To this weekend's action. A score of 28 - 30 does not accurately reflect the match where we were able to gain the upper hand in pretty much every facet of play except the ruck; failing to create quick phase ball and giving the slower and more heavy weight Wokingham team time to regroup and repel our attacks. Matt Thomas at prop improved throughout the game and towards the end was giving his opposite number real problems. Dec Donnelly closed out his first season, struggling through the last few minutes of the game with what we now know is a broken wrist. Chris Harrison capped a lively performance with a try earned chasing what seemed a lost cause; his miss directed up and under fell in space, Chris on the charge, gathered the bouncing ball and out paced the defence to score. Gary Baker capped a fine performance with two tries and at least one assist. Giving a man of the match performance carrying the ball strongly all game. Skipper James Blashfield was the beneficiary of Gary's work rate receiving a pass to cross the line and touch down under the posts. For his second, James found himself positioned to touch down following a rounded off a great forward drive from the line out. Part of our issue with score line was the unfortunate lack of form with the boot. Bleddyn had a terrible time off the tee, missing all but two kicks; slotting an easy penalty and only one conversion. Wokingham whilst lacking any real endeavour or flare were able to disrupt our ball and maximise the frequent mistakes. I think its fair to say that we played all the rugby but we did not use the width of the pitch or make the larger team run around enough. Plenty to build on for next year!

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