Surrey Cup Final – Cranleigh U15’s vs Cobham U15’s

The last day of competitive rugby in 2023 and it was final day at Esher Rugby Club. We arrived in the driving rain and mud with unhappy looking Surrey mums tiptoeing around in their suede moon boots. The Crane’s had a full team with no injuries so we were fresh and ready, even with the prospect of two Shayler’s playing together! We also had a record crowd of supporters with parents, brothers, sisters all braving the cold, wet and windy conditions and even had the return of coach Dougie with his Bermuda shorts and fractured ankle. The game was delayed by 15 minutes due to a number of holes in the pitch and Tarek offered to take Dougie for a ride in his wheelbarrow to help with repairs. Sadly this was refused, and the patient settled for a fisherman‘s chair with an umbrella that kept going inside out due to the wind. 

Our opposition for the 5th placed play off – Cobham – looked large and well drilled and there was even chat that they should have been in a league above. So it showed as they attacked with gusto after kick off and despite some good tackling by the Zac S and Will S (great to have him back!) they eventually got past us with a clever chip from their fly half and scored. A difficult kick missed 5–0.

The next ten minutes were close with more possession from the Crane’s with turnovers from Dom and big tackles from Hugo that got us back to the right part of the pitch. My mum – despite being about 2 foot shorter than me – almost took a ball in the head with some drilled kicking into touch, so my second job of the day was ball catcher at touch (one I think I did well with loud shouts of Lazza’s ball!). Back on the pitch, the Crane’s were working hard with Bert having a great running game, passing to Will S then Oscar D who got us close. Luke also made another one of his weaving runs but the opposition kept us out.

However, the opposition were slick and had some great jackals at the breakdown and their defence was strong.  They were doing a good combination of strong straight runs and spinning the ball wide and eventually scored against the run of play with their fast centre going straight and bursting through a gap. Kick missed 10-0. We needed to find a way back. 

Another bit of stalemate with strong runs by Loken (good to have him back) and Dante who did a nice run then nodded too his three legged fisherman Dad! Matt, Matt was also doing his own jackling and ripping the balls off regularly, and Joseph was getting into the game with some of his trademark strong runs. Hugo was also leading from the front with some great running and tackling. However, despite good pressure we could not get up over the line and had to settle for 10-0 at halftime.

At halftime Rob did a rousing ‘lets be having you’ speech (wonder who he got that from?!) and the second half we came out flying with the wind in our backs (some would call blizzard). Strong runs by Oscar H, Rory, and Bert got us close to the line but we just knocked it on before going over. We continued to put massive pressure on their scrum and it was difficult to hear with the volume of the cheering Crane fans – what a support crew! 

I’m Can you We eventually turned over one of their rucks with a big hit from Dom and Oscar D cut back inside to score our first try. Conversion missed. 10–5 and we were back in it!

However, after the restart in what was to be a crucial part of the game, we were undone by a couple of handling errors and Cobham had a strong attacking scrum from a knock on. They sucked us in with some direct play then spun it wide and found the way around us for a try in the corner. To rub salt in the wounds, they also landed a great kick from the touchline. 17–5.

Worse was to come and directly from the next kick off, they spun it wide and their impressive winger cut through a whole number of miss tackles, and managed to score from the kick off. A real shame as we had got ourselves back into the game, but we were guilty of not going low early enough. The Crane’s fan club had gone a bit quiet. Kick missed. 22–5. 

However credit to our boys and heads did not go down and we came straight back from the kick off. Zack W came straight off of the bench for a nice run that got us close to the line. Syd also came on to make it a full house of Shayler’s and Dom made a strong run from number 8 getting close. Oscar H, Matt Matt and Henry all had goes at going over the line and Rory was like a man possessed. The birthday boy was the muddiest person on the pitch and put 100% in today. After being camped on the opposition line for what seemed like an eternity with more bullocking runs by Dom, Joseph and Henry, Zac S finally sneaked over for the score. Kick missed (Rory may have needed to do his shoelaces up!). 22–10. A great morale boost! 

Some more strong play just before the final whistle saw the opposition almost run most of the length of the pitch and score, but a fantastic last-ditch tackle by Matt Matt took the player out to touch. Game over, and as the whistle was blown. Oh and the sun came out…!

We were on the losing end, but an entertaining game and you couldn’t fault our guys for their effort and the amazing vocal crowd. You could not tell which team was which because they were so covered in mud, but a well-deserved ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung to Rory in some very much broken voices, then a team photo underneath the post. 

Back to the impressive clubhouse to warm up with an interesting combination of Mulled Wine with Biltong! Not the result we wanted, but a nice end to 2023 competitive games, and a huge thanks to the coaches for such a great team. 

Happy Christmas all!