It's grim for OWs at East Grinstead

The Counts were under pressure from the start as the home side convincingly got the upper hand in the set scrums and the backline, with centres Sam Musgrave and Ben Saunders finding gaps in the Walcountians defence, took just none minutes to create an opportunity for winger Jake Radcliffe to score in the left corner.

However, the visitors’ spirits were raised just four minutes later when mercurial centre Dom Barnaby scored a stunningly audacious try when he took an offload from scrum-half Alex French just inside his own half and left the East Grinstead defence gasping for breath as he broke away to score under the posts, fly-half Ross Lever adding the conversion.

Walcountians’ game was frustratingly inconsistent. At times, they looked slick and effective. Although coming off second best in the set pieces, the forwards often looked dangerous, particularly when breaking with the ball from rucks, with hooker Callum Tilleray and back rowers Joe Henderson and Tom Brown particularly prominent, while half-backs Ross Lever and Alex French frequently bamboozled East Grinstead with intelligent breaks. But at other times, the Counts looked disorganised, with failure to support breaks, loss of the ball in the contact areas, misdirected passes and failure to find touch with kicks the most common errors. It was a misdirected attempt to find touch which gave East Grinstead the opportunity to regain the lead in the 19th minute with centre Sam Musgrove getting the final touch for the try.
By half-time, the Counts were 14 points adrift after Jake Radcliffe ran in his second try for East Grinstead in the 29th minute and, just two minutes into the second half, went further behind after a forward drive from a ruck on the tryline led to another try for the home side.

Walcountians were not down and out and, 10 minutes into the second half, the brilliance of Dom Barnaby left a massive hole in the East Grinstead defence and set up full-back Hal Mogridge to run in for a try. Unfortunately, the curse of injuries hit Walcountians again with centre Eji Erhirhie, scrum-half Alex French, prop James Ford and replacement Brendan Murphy all having to leave the field. The home side took advantage of this disruption to the Counts with full-back Ollie Billin kicking a penalty in the 29th minute to bring up the 30-point mark.

The Counts had one last big play in the 33rd minute when burly prop Michael Acquah thundered over for a try after picking the ball out of a ruck, with Ross Lever adding the conversion. But the final word was delivered by the home side two minutes into stoppage time when centre Sam Musgrove ran in his second try of the day.

Walcountians now sit in ninth place in Counties League 1 Surrey/Sussex and face the daunting prospect of runaway League leaders Teddington next Saturday. Kick-off at Clock House, Carshalton Road, Woodmansterne is at 2:30pm.

Old Walcountians:- Mogridge, Fletcher-Rogers, Erhirhie, Barnaby, Togbolah, Lever, French, Ford, Tilleray, Harris, Bell, Saladino, Stevens, Henderson, Brown.

Subs:- Acquah, Housden, Murphy.