Oaks 27 Deal 0
Oaks notched up another hard fought victory on Saturday against Deal to take their record to 7-0 for the season. It also marked the return of one of Oaks' favourite sons as ex-premiership and England star Tom May returned to play for the blue and gold for the first time since his junior days at the club.
In truly awful conditions this mid season arm wrestle was one for the connoisseur rather than an example of the free running rugby Oaks have displayed so far this term. However, Oaks three tries on the day came from two of their back three, winger Saunders and full back Streather with the other from fly half Winter. Oaks, playing with the wind, took an early lead and never looked like relinquishing it. Skipper Robinson's men steadily built a 20-0 score line that was always going to be too much for the visitors from East Kent to overturn in the second half.
The boys from Knole Paddock continued to dominate the game in the second stanza, with Winter jogging over for a 27-0 lead but couldn’t find that all important bonus point try in the deteriorating conditions. Skipper Robinson was in sanguine mood after the match commenting ‘That was really tough out there today and I am delighted that the guys found a way to win and win well against tough opponents. Perhaps in one sense we were guilty of playing a little too much rugby at times, particularly in the first half but you do not want to suppress the ambition that has stood us in such good stead this term and has been the catalyst for our unbeaten start’. On May he noted ‘Tom has been fantastic since he joined us in pre season. He has a great work ethic at training and has installed a huge amount of confidence in everybody. Making the transition back to the amateur game cannot have been easy for him but he has mucked in as one of the lads and been a pleasure to work with. With the conditions as they were today though, I'm sure he may have been asking himself why he ever left Toulon!’
Oaks face an away trip next weekend to Beckenham who will be looking to bounce back from their surprising away loss to Hove.
1 Naismith
2 Richardson
3 Power
4 Coleman
5 Anderson
6 Thorpe
7 Sedgwick
8 Robinson
9 Shirtcliff
10 Winter
11 Unwin
12 Vaihu
13 May
14 Saunders
15 Streather
16 Walker
17 Swallow
18 Adams