Last Sunday saw us kick-off the start of the Surrey league with first time opponents Dorking visiting CRFC. The boys were buzzing in the locker rooms and from the first whistle we could tell our lads were up for the challenge. We started well from the onset and Jake Ball put the home side on the scoreboard within the first 3 mins. Dorking weathered the persistent attach from Chiswick and fought back to pin us in our own end, a few errors and missed tackles saw the score evened with a Dorking try in the corner. It was Oscar who got us back ahead of the visitors after a tumbling run through a solid defensive line and brought Chiswick 2-1 up at halftime. The 2nd half was very similar to the first; evenly matched, very physical with some big hits and powerful runs, and sprinkled with some silly mistakes on from both sides. Dorking levelled it up with a long run into our corner. We had a try that was called back after a TMO review saw Otto’s shoe just going into touch. This would have been a wonderful try highlighting 8 phases of play and fantastic support play, but it wasn’t meant to be. Chiswick stayed down in the Dorking 22 and finally the crowd could hear Herbie shouting for “Mackie Dees, Mackie Dees”, was he hungry? No, it was the call for the cross-field kick from Luke, which just cleared defenders fingertips and was brilliantly collected and dotted down by Herbie for our 3rd and final try. Chiswick up 3-2 with 10 mins to go. A lot of credit to Dorking for fighting back to level it up for a final score of 3-3, in what was a very balanced and competitive match and a decent start to our league campaign.
[Report written by U13 Head Coach Jon]