After a week rest, Woking RFC were looking to resume their campaign in Surrey 4 with a victory against the visiting Old Oundelians RFC on a dry November afternoon. There were a couple of changes to the Woking line up with the dynamic Thomas Pedrona away visiting family, Matt Borman returning from a knock and Steve Garvey making his debut.
The opening exchanges were a strange affair, with Woking, having had the opportunity for a proper warm up were slow to get out of the blocks. There was a bit of an arm wrestle with neither team really imposing themselves until some confusion in the Woking back line resulted in a delayed passing which was expertly picked off by an Oundelians player to race down the pitch and under the sticks. The conversion was gratefully taken to give them an early 7-0 lead.
Moments later, they were over the white wash again with Woking in a state of shock as they hadn’t done much wrong but found themselves 12-0 as the second conversion attempt was missed. At the restart, Woking were able to re gather the ball with an excellent catch from Steve Rhodes and this was the catalyst for Woking to get going.
With the Woking scrum being on the front foot and the lineout working well. This gave Woking the opportunities to gain field position and make Oundelians work very hard in defence to keep their line intact but after a few chances were missed Woking were awarded a scrum on the five metre line and the scrum did the rest with Adam Smith darting away from the base of the scrum that was going forward to score, which was made into a 7 pointer by a Dan Edwards conversion.
The rest of first half saw possession bounce between the teams with penalties being traded to leave the score close at half time as Old Oundelains lead Woking 15 points to 10 at the break. Woking had been forced into making a change at 10 late in the first half with Borman unable to continue after a couple of heavy knocks to his knee and was replaced by the hard done by Goodburn, who could have easily found himself starting.
In to the second half and Woking took the game by the scruff of the neck, lead by a number of impressive performances including Rhodes, who shut down Oundelians 10 all day, Franchino who stole the ball at the break down on a number of occasions, Goodburn controlling the game from 10 and Smith with his barn storming runs and support lines.
Woking got the first score of the half with Wallis using his pace to touch the ball down over the line after some incisive work form the Woking forwards and centres. The break had found Woking just short of the line with a couple of quick drives not getting them over the line but some good communication and quick thinking from Marchant allowed Wallis to score untouched. Edwards converted to take Woking into the lead for the first time.
Credit to Oundelains to came right back at Woking which resulted in a penalty being awarded and the resulting kicked sailed through the uprights to give them the lead again but from then on it was largely Woking.
A deft little touch from tight head Crossan sent Edwards through the middle to the pitch with only his opposite number to beat but he didn’t have to as Turner was on his shoulder and the two on one was finished with Turner stretching his legs to score his first of the season. Edwards was able to convert, giving Woking a 24-18 lead.
Woking then made their final two changes with Harriott coming on for Crossan and the magnificent Rhodes being replaced by Lovell but there was still time for Smith to score again and give Woking the bonus point win that they desired. Similar to his first try, it was a strong scrum that gave Smith the opportunity and he didn’t need a second invitation to use his low centre of gravity to burst his way past a couple of defenders and place the ball in the try area. Edwards converted to give Woking a well deserved 31-18 win.
At the end of the match it was difficult to select a man of the match with many individuals having a significant contribution to the result but it was decided that the award should go to a man who’s scores had made a big difference on the scoreboard and that man was Adam Smith. Especially after comments from Old Oundelians that Rhodes had been such a destructive influence that they had to change their game plan and that the front row was too strong.
Woking Team; Pearce, Hamilton-Wilkes, Crossan, Bennett, Robertson, Franchino, Rhodes, Smith, Bannister, Borman, Wallis, Turner, Garvey, Marchant and Edwards. Subs; Lovell, Harriott and Goodburn.
Captain Phil Robertson said after the match this was another committed Woking performance. After being down by 2 tries early on we could have easily let our heads drop but we showed heart and determination to get ourselves back in the game. This result was huge for us as Old Oundalians beat us twice last season and one of these results were a heavy defeat. We showed we have what it takes to compete with the top teams in the league. We would like to continue with this run of form and encourage as many players as possible down to The Rec this week for training to iron out any creases and improve on our strengths. A great result for Woking! Phil also said that the Woking 2nd XV "the Saxons" had a great result narrowly beating tough rivals Stratham and Croyden who have not lost many games this year. This takes the tally to 7 wins in a row for the Saxons, It's a great result for the club, we are showing strength and depth which has been missing for many seasons at WRFC. Well done all!!
