Counts return to winning ways

The Counts got off to a strong start and were making inroads into the Blues’ defence through driving runs by debutant No8 TJ Akinjobi and took the lead after just 10 minutes when scrum-half Seb Chmielinski caught Blues defenders off-guard by taking a quick tap penalty and outsprinting them to the line. But Walcountians failed to capitalise on this advantage and too often allowed Blues to check their attacking moves by failing to back up the runner. One exception was flanker Joe Henderson who was at the heart of every ruck and secured a lot of turnover ball. Furthermore, wild passes were liberally thrown around and brought several promising moves to an early end.

Blues started to fight their way back into the match and, in the 23rd minute, took the lead when fly-half Satterfield swerved past two Walcountians defenders to touch down for a converted try.

Walcountians managed to pull themselves back in front with a penalty from full-back Ed Armitage in the 28th minute and a second Armitage penalty in stoppage time extended their lead to four points at the break.

Walcountians showed more urgency in the second half and scored their conclusive try six minutes in. Hooker Rob Fleming was held up close to the Blues’ line but he set up a ruck from which the ball was recycled to set up a sweeping threequarter move. Winger Dharshan Vadivelu came off his wing to open up a gap to put fellow winger Marvin Fletcher-Rogers clear to round the Blues defence and touch down for his tenth try of the season.

The Counts had the greater share of possession in the second half but were unable to add to the score and conceded too many penalties for comfort. They successfully kept Blues at bay but not without some heart-stopping moments when their defence failed to pick up emerging moves and it took last-ditch defending to stop their opponents.

Next Saturday, Walcountians are on tour. They return to action in two weeks’ time when they take on Old Freemen’s at Clock House, kicking off at 3pm. A conservative estimate is that this will be a demanding test as Freemen's have shown an impressive improvement in form during the second half of the season.

Old Walcountians:- Armitage, Fletcher-Rogers, Wrightson (H), Kennedy, Vadivelu, Charnock, Chmielinski, Claustres, Fleming, Anderson, Thornton, Bell, Wrightson (J), Henderson, Akinjobi.

Subs:- Dunne, Harris, McMullen.