Oct 26

Written by: Richard Drage
26/10/2011 12:40

Match Report - Taken from Egham RFC Pitchero We thought we'd let the opposition tell the story. :-)

By Hannes Kleineke | Monday 24th October 2011

In glorious sunshine Egham Hollowegians travelled into the Surrey countryside up the pockmarked acess roads to Reigate RFC. The two sides had encountered each other three times in the cup and the league last season, encounters from which Egham had takenaway a total of five much needed points. On this occasion, it was evident that Reigate had regrouped over the summer, and its first team, still captained by Lyndon Kinsley and now coached by Antipodean former player Jay Wilkinson, proved a very different proposition from those the clubs had fielded in previous seasons. Reigate put the Hollowegians under pressure from the outset and within ten minutes had placed two well aimed kicks over the cross bar. Egham promptly retaliated with a penalty converted by fly half Gordon Kerins, to keep the guests in the game. Hollowegians put up a strong defence, marshalled by Full-back Jonny Holloway, who on several occasions slipped through his own attackers’ grip to penetrate deep into the hosts’ half, but were powerless to prevent the hosts from scoring two tries (one of the converted) before the half time whistle. In the second half Egham stepped up their pace, and the regrouped pack, strengthened by former player-coach John Constantinou returning as a prop and new lock and man-of-the-match Sam Jones, won a number of set pieces. Reigate nevertheless responded immediately, and within the third quarter scored three further tries. Although the Egham back line of centres Patrick Wright and Ben Pawson and Wings Josh Wretham and Will Thompson worked tirelessly, the Reigate defence stood solid, and it was Egham’s gutsy (if noisy) scrum half Stuart ‘Clap’ Turner who came closest to breaking through and scoring a try. Egham Hollowegians played some of their strongest rugby of the season, with excellent individual performances all around, and were unlucky not to have improved on the final score line of 42-3. They nevertheless came off the field with their heads held high, in the knowledge of having been defeated by a side who on the day and on their own ground were simply the stronger team. This was a good-natured and friendly encounter, and Sam Jones and Ben Pawson ultimately defended the Hollowegians’ honour in the bar, roundly seeing off all Reigate could offer in the man-of-the-match boatrace.

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