Reigate welcomed Streatham & Croydon to Colley Lane on Saturday in the second match of their Surrey 3 League campaign. It was a match that was played with both a similar tempo and in similar temperatures to Reigate’s first league game of the season the week before.
With Reigate’s first & second teams both at home this week, the two matches were preceded by a minute’s silence in tribute to Andy Wylie who, as mentioned in last week’s Surrey Mirror, sadly passed away during the week. All four playing sides gathered on the 1st XV pitch and stood arm-in-arm to pay their respects to a much-loved member of the Reigate club.
The game then commenced and the opening encounters saw both sides testing the opposition defences without success. An early penalty from the Reigate fly-half opened the scoring and at 3-0 the match was evenly poised. Around 20 minutes into the game came the first try-scoring opportunity when Reigate centre, Matt Sanford, powered through an attempted tackle and closed in on the try-line from around 30 yards out. Whilst attempting to score under the posts, some excellent defensive work from the opposition number 10 saw him dislodge the ball from Sanford’s grasp before it had been grounded, a mistake that surely coach and team-mates alike are unlikely to let the inside centre forget for some time to come.
An exchange of penalties saw the score reach 6-6 and with half-time closing in, Streatham & Croydon took the lead with a well-worked try. The conversion was missed and at half-time the game remained evenly poised at 6-11.
The second half remained close with Reigate looking to move the ball wide in an attempt to nullify the advantage that Streatham & Croydon’s heavier pack had in the set-piece. Momentum seemed likely to swing Reigate’s way when Streatham & Croydon had a man sin-binned for persistent offending midway through the second half, but despite some excellent passages of play, Reigate were unable to turn their numerical advantage into points.
As the second half progressed and with home players taking knocks when all available substitutions had been made, Reigate succumbed to two late tries as they threw caution to the wind. In what had been an evenly contested contest for most of the match, Streatham & Croydon ran out deserved winners, but with a scoreline of 6-23 flattering the visitors, Reigate will look forward to the return fixture later in the season and a chance to make amends.