Counts off the mark

The Counts suffered a setback in the pre-match warm-up when industrious flanker Tom Housden suffered a hip strain. Dylan Camakamma came off the bench to replace him.

In the opening 10 minutes, Kingston looked the most likely of the two sides to score. The home pack looked the more cohesive, they made more effective use of their threequarters and half-backs Boyd Rouse and Jon McDunphy drove the K’s upfield with a series of lengthy tactical kicks as they exploited Walcountians indiscipline in the rucks. In the 11th minute, outside-centre Connor Ashwin finished off a threequarter move to touch down for a converted try to give the K’s a lead.

Walcountians reduced the lead four minutes later when second phase ball from a ruck gave fly-half Seb Chmielinski the opportunity to launch his threequarters for a move that speedy winger Omarie Brown spectacularly finished off.

When the Counts co-ordinated their moves, they were a formidable force in attack with Callum Tilleray, Tom Brown and Joe Henderson prominent in carrying the ball and Seb Chmielinski a threat when he had the ball in his hands. Two pieces of opportunism saw them turn a deficit into a twelve point lead by half-time.

The first, in the 24th minute came from a tap penalty, from which burly prop Michael Acquah smashed his way through the Kingston defensive line for a converted try.The second, in the 37th minute, was created when Walcountians’ most penetrative back, centre Dom Barnaby, broke from halfway and opened a massive gap in the K’s defence before offloading to Seb Chmielinski to run in the Counts’ third try of the day.

The second half should have given Kingston a considerable advantage as they had the slope at the Hook Road ground in their favour. After nine minutes, they narrowed Walcountians’ lead when lock Dave Wakefield drove over for a try from a maul on the Counts’ line.

Walcountians successfully repelled several sieges to their tryline with solid tackles but conceded too many penalties by failing to back up colleagues with the ball. This cost them several potential opportunities to run in more tries. They were not helped by injuries to Joe Henderson and Dylan Camakamma, which led to substituted winger Andy Togbolah being brought back to cover the back row.

Nevertheless, the Counts proved dogged and, ten minutes from the end, secured a valuable bonus point when they won a lineout and released the ball to the backs for Seb Chmielinski and centre Heath Bateman to set up an opportunity for Andy Togbolah to cross for their fourth try of the day.

Kingston scored one more try in stoppage time when loose-head prop Tom Tyler drove over from a ruck, but Walcountians were strong enough to hold on for a victory.

With four matches gone, Walcountians are currently seventh out of 12 teams in Counties League 1 Surrey/Sussex. Next Saturday, Walcountians take on bottom side Old Cranleighans at their Clock House ground, kicking off at 3pm.