Crowborough 0 Sevenoaks 21
Oaks recorded their fourth straight league victory last Saturday to remain at the head of affairs in London SE2. Despite the Crows slow start to the season, largely due to a burgeoning injury list, Steel Cross is never an easy place to visit and wins there are always hard earned. This encounter proved to be no different and was a stern test for a young Oaks team that was well led by stand in skipper Unwin.
Oaks registered the first points of the day through lock Coleman who rounded off an excellent backs move. With the home backs getting a little narrow in defence Oaks moved the ball down the line and put Tree away into space on the wing, his inside ball found the hard working second row in support and he galloped over the whitewash to dot down under the sticks. Ten minutes later Oaks produced a carbon copy of the move and after Winter was held up just short of the line Saunders cut a lovely angle off the next phase to dot down between the posts. Winter added the extras in both cases to open up a 14-0 lead for the visitors. Despite a near miss from centre Vaihu, Oaks couldn’t add another score before the half time whistle.
The second half was a largely scrappy affair, lacking in shape and pattern. Crowborough pushed hard for long periods and deserved a score but a combination of stern Oaks defence and attacking handling errors kept the home team pointless. Oaks finally finished off the game as a contest when another Oaks counter attack from lock Thorpe saw Winter register his second try of the day and make the score 21-0 to the boys from Knole Paddock.
After the match coach Bowman commented ‘We are obviously pleased to pick up another away win but a little annoyed with ourselves that we failed to register a bonus point try. We played too much rugby in the wrong areas of the pitch against a strong Crowborough team who, now they have got some of their first choice players back will be heading up the league in the near future. We now have two weeks off to hopefully mend some weary limbs before facing Ashford on the 24th.’
1 Naismith
2 Browne
3 Power
4 Thorpe
5 Coleman
6 Swallow
7 Desmith
8 Nay
9 Shirtcliff
10 Winter
11 Thomson
12 Vaihu
13 Unwin
14 Tree
15 Saunders
16 Sedgewick
17 Walker
18 Dodd