Big Tournament for our U22s

The competition format was that all teams played three thirty-minute games against different opposition. The Cranleigh squad consisted of eight first-team players, two returning from university, and seven current Colts.

The first game was against Old Rutlishians. For both halves, Cranleigh was kept in their half and had to use the whole team to defend against Rutlish, who did score in the first six minutes. The scrums were even, and the Cranleigh lineout, as it was in all three games, was excellent, but the Rutlish back row and centres pounded Cranleigh into their half.The first successful Cranleigh attack saw Wilf Overton score to make the score 5-5. It was only the last minute of the game that Cranleigh gave away a penalty, which Rutlish 12 kicked to finish up 5-8.

The second game against Twickenham was against a very strong side in all positions. Right from the start, scoring two tries within 4 minutes. Max Bracewell tried single-handed to break through the Twickenham defence, but the Cranleigh defence waned with some poor first-time tackles and easily reached a score of 0-31..With only two minutes to go, Jake Tetley, after two previous attempts, scored and was expertly converted by Torren Ross. Final score 7-31. An imposing Twickenham side.

The third game, in which again the squad rotated versus Edenbridge, was a much better effort after some words from the coaches, Sam Lawrence and Pierre Goodwin. A physically big Edenbridge side flew out of the traps to score within 45 seconds, and things looked ominous. But Cranleigh made heroic tackles, especially from Phil Dandy. Mikey Rosser, to name two. We lost too many possessions in the rucks, mainly due to a brilliant Edenbridge No. 6. Mikey Rosser outpaced the Edenbridge defence by over 60 yards, only to be caught just before the line. Missed tackles gifted two more tries to Edenbridge, who were playing at pace with good backing up and understanding, and the final score was 0-19.

All three oppositions from far more senior clubs were physically significant, and were more 21-22 years of age and looked much more like they played together regularly. However, our players in two of the three games gave an excellent account of themselves. It was a big learning curve for the seven Colts to play against such strong opposition, but they were all a credit to the club. Lineouts were secure, and scrummages never gave all three opposition the upper hand. It was a very good effort by everyone.

Report John Bailey