More woe for OWs

The Counts were missing several first-choice players. Hal Mogridge, Brendan Murphy, Alex Skinner and Harry Wrightson were missing from the backline while the forwards were missing long-term injury absentee Remy Claustres, regular skipper Joe Henderson and energetic flanker Tom Housden who was consequently unable to make something from nothing in times like these. Match-winning winger Omarie Brown dropped out prior to kick-off and prop James Ford had to leave the field after 15 minutes with an injury. Long-serving forward Jonny Evans took over the captaincy.

It took the visitors only three minutes to open the scoring when full-back Jack Dunn went over for a try.

Walcountians however responded and briefly held the lead when centre Dom Barnaby saw a gap in the KCS defence and raced through to score an opportunist try which fly-half Alex French converted. However, the Counts’ euphoria lasted barely five minutes as KCS regained the lead with a try from a maul on the Walcountians’ line.

The visitors dominated possession in the first half and looked slick and composed, in contrast to a disjointed Walcountians, and ran in three more tries before half-time.

It was a far more aggressive and cohesive Walcountians which started the second half, and the forwards turned the tables on the KCS pack with outstanding contributions from hooker Callum Tilleray, prop Michael Acquah and No 8 Tom Brown. The backs took longer to click as a unit but KCS spent most of the opening 20 minutes trying to repel a Walcountians team determined to get back into the game. In the 23rd minute, they finally found a way through when wingers Olly Sanders and Andy Togbolah combined to open up KCS’s left flank and put supporting flanker Joe Lawrence in for a try.

Hopes that Walcountians might overhaul KCS’s lead were raised when Dom Barnaby scored his second try of the day in the 31st minute after a powerful drive by Michael Acquah cleared out several KCS defenders. Unfortunately, the Counts ran out of steam after their endeavours and KCS rallied in the closing stages with scrum-half Bill Slater scoring their sixth try of the day in the final minute.

As a result of the defeat, Walcountians have slipped to ninth in the league. They face a difficult challenge in their next match on 6 January when they take on promotion hopefuls Old Tiffinians at Summer Road, East Molesey, kicking off at 2pm.

Old Walcountians:- Erhirhie, Togbolah, Fletcher-Rogers, Barnaby, Bellringer, French, Downes, Ford, Tilleray, Acquah, Bell, Thomas, Lawrence, Evans, Brown.

Subs:- Camakamma, Harris, Sanders.