First Weekend of Rugby For The Mighty Cranes!

It was a great day down at Effingham & Leatherhead RFC yesterday as we took 15 lads down to play against Effingham and Chobham in a round robin 12-a-side tournament.

Having had a rather large break since the last fixture, it was a bit of the shock to the system to prepare for a match day during the week at training. We’re very lucky to be averaging 30 odd players at training most nights so training has been of a really high standard, which has all been driven by the players.

As players began to arrive, there was a build-up of excitement from all the teams involved. The conditions, although very windy, were perfect for some running rugby on a dry pitch. We had originally planned for a 15-a-side game, but last-minute drop outs meant we had to adjust the numbers down to 12.

The first game was against Effingham & Leatherhead who ply their trade in the league above, so we knew we were in for a good challenge. From the early exchanges, it was clear to see any nervousness around contact were quickly put to bed as both sides were trying to assert themselves physically on the game. We asked the boys to move the ball away from the ruck quickly and accurately, which opened up attacking opportunities for us with the extra space. An early try for Geoff Noonan after some great work in the ruck by Pierre Goodwin turned the ball over and the ball went through the hands out to Geoff on the wing who cantered in. Effingham came firing back straight from the kick off with dominant collisions from their livewire back rows showed us that the game was far from over. After holding out a late surge, the lads held on for a great 17-12 win against a really well coached Effingham team.

Next up was another great challenge of playing a team who were three leagues above in the form of Chobham RFC. From their game against Effingham before playing us, it was clear to see that the physicality went up a few notches which meant we had to really look after the ball. It was a real ding-dong battle with both packs not backing down and both 10’s trying to get a foot hold in the game by trying to get their team moving forward. Some heroic defence from Alex Gee, Tobias Macey and Ben Terson kept us within touching distance only conceding 3 tries in the first half. Our defensive efforts were quickly rewarded when James Fentiman intercepted a loose pass and dotted down under the posts. In the end, the game was just too far out of reach for us to get back into as Chobham’s quality and experience shone through. We can hold our heads up high as we held our own against some much higher ranked opposition – a good marker to see where we would like to be one day.

MVP of the day went to Georgie Wheeler who put himself about and did some hard graft in the dark areas to allow us to get on the front foot through his carrying and breakdown work. It was a very mature performance for a player so young. Another mention was Maric Gomez from the colts who came in last minute to fill in at scrum half. Maric made his senior debut and performed very well throughout both games, hopefully the first of many!

Our attention quickly shifts to this Saturday, when we play against Met Police at Wildwood Lane. It will be great to have competitive rugby back at Wildwood Lane where we can look to return to some form of normality.

Cranleigh Mixed XV
Alex Gee, Maric Gomez, Theo Gloyens, Gareth Stingemore, Tobias Macey, Liam Kennedy, Nick Hendy, Pierre Goodwin, Geoff Noonan, Ben Terson, Jake Tetley, George Wheeler, Sam Lawrence, Harry Crabtree, James Fentiman.