CRANLEIGH RFC 1ST XV vs. SOUTHWARK LANCERS

Team – 1 Titch Macey 2 Nick Sutton 3 Liam Kennedy 4 Will Davies (VC) 5 Josh Barraud 6 Mikey Rosser 7 Phil Dandys 8 Pierre Goodwin (C)  9 Jamie White 10 Zak Hebron 11 Raffiee MD 12 Jack Hannington 13 Max Bracewell 14 Geoff Noonan 15 Hugo McAllister.

16 Luke Filelden 17 Jamie Williams 18 Mike Artlett 19 Tom Wade 20 Marcus Dangerfield.

Cranleigh welcomed Southwark Lancers, who transferred from the Kent Leagues to Surrey Counties 4 this season.  

From the start of the game, Cranleigh had to endure, like last week, the first 15 minutes of serious defending when Lancers came out of the blocks. Cranleigh losing their first two lineouts did not help. Also losing Josh Barraud after 20 minutes with a leg injury weakened the lineouts for the rest of the game. 

However, under pressure 25 minutes from the halfway line,  Raffie MD flew around the Lancers’ back line to score under the posts, which was converted.

Cranleigh looked more confident and started to put in some decent moves, one of which Pierre Goodwin charged through the middle to score halfway out unconverted.

Lancers then showed that they could convert pressure into tries and completed a fine move with their right-wing scoring in the corner. There standoff making a superb conversion. Cranleigh reacted very well and camped on the Lancers 22 with numerous charges but no points. They then incurred a series of penalties which allowed Lancers to move up the field with their strong driving forwards and 1 minute before half time scored again halfway out with another decent conversion. Half Time 12-14

The start of the second half started like the first with Lancers putting  Cranleigh under pressure for 15 minutes. Cranleigh held well in the tight against Lancers’ big forwards but was consistently losing their lineouts, which Lancers took advantage of moving down the pitch, resulting in another well-converted try.

Cranleigh’s play in the second half was poor and disjointed. Too many passes went astray and Cranleigh made the Lancers look a far better side than they were.

Cranleigh again defended well all game and their effort like in previous games was not in doubt. Lancers were a decent side, one which we have to beat if we are to move up the leagues. Lancers 9/10 were excellent and caused Cranleigh all sorts of problems. The players and coaches were frustrated after the game and sure all will be working with our young side to put out a better second-half performance next time.  

Report John Bailey.