Sevenoaks 50 Crowborough 7
Oaks welcomed local rivals Crowborough to The Paddock last Saturday for the London 2 encounter that paired teams from the opposing ends of the table. Oaks were desperate to register their fifth consecutive bonus point victory whilst the visitors were looking points to help them in their survival bid.
In front of a large home crowd, bolstered in part by the not inconsiderable presence of the President of the RFU Jason Leonard, both sides put on a tremendous display of expansive, running rugby. Oaks recorded eight tries on the day, four in each half whilst the visitors sole consolation was an excellent breakaway try just before half.
Oaks number eight and Captain Robinson led the blue gold from the front and registered a personal haul of three tries due to his excellent support play and the graft of a tight five that broke Crowborough hearts with its power, pace and physicality. Silky wing three quarter Streather notched a brace, with other tries from hooker Martyr, centre Vaihu and wing three quarter Saunders. Outside half Winter had a good day off the tee kicking five from eight, most of which were from out wide towards the touchline.
At the final whistle Coach Vaughan commented ‘That was a really good eighty minutes from us this week. Since Christmas we have played well in short bursts that have won us games but today we kept on playing from first to last and kept our composure and shape very well. We have set ourselves a high benchmark for the remainder of the season and I was particularly pleased with the work rate of the tight five, the omnipresence of the support runners and the mellifluous nature of some of the lines we took was a joy to behold’
Oaks next fixture is away to Ashford this coming Saturday before an Intermediate Cup visit to Basingstoke on the 6th Feb. The next home game at The Paddock is on the 13th February when Horsham are the visitors.
Squad
1 Naismith
2 Martyr
3 Power
4 Anderson
5 Coleman
6 Thorpe
7 Sedgwick
8 Robinson
9 Shirtcliff
10 Winter
11 Saunders
12 Vaihu
13 Unwin
14 Streather
15 Bates
16 Swallow
17 Aspinall
18 Adams