Counts maintain pole position after return to winning ways

The Counts survived a shaky opening 10 minutes when the visitors threatened to run riot. Their ball distribution skills and support play were exemplary and it took desperate defending by Walcountians to keep them at bay.

As the match progressed, Walcountians started to take more control. They had the better of the set scrums with the front row of Anthony Abou-Zeid, Rob Fleming and Jonny Evans dominant in the set pieces, while Fleming and second row Pete Thomas were prominent in driving play forward in the loose. In the 20th minute, Walcountians broke the deadlock when Jonny Evans offloaded to centre Dany Abou-Zeid, who in turn found winger Marvin Fletcher-Rogers to burst through the ranks of Whitgiftians defenders to score a try converted by full-back Ross Norton.

Walcountians wasted little time in extending their lead. Nine minutes later, impressive distribution and angles of running by Dany Abou-Zeid and fellow centre Johnny Wehbe found winger Tom McMullen who spectacularly rounded the Whitgiftians defence to score the Counts’ second try of the day. A towering conversion from the boot of Ross Norton took Walcountians’ lead to 14 points.

Whitgiftians were far from out of the game and cut Walcountians’ lead with a converted try four minutes into stoppage time.

Walcountians made the best possible start to the second half where they were defending a narrow lead and playing uphill by scoring an early try which rocked the visitors. It started with an explosive break through the centre of the park by replacement centre Heath Bateman which left the Whitgiftians defence wide open, and was finished by full-back Ross Norton who scored his seventh try of the season by beating off a cover tackle and recovering to dive over in the left hand corner.

Walcountians sealed victory as early as the 12th minute when Ross Norton banged over a penalty.

The rest of the match was evenly matched between two highly effective teams. Walcountians continued to boss the forward battles and the replacement of Anthony Abou-Zeid in the front row by Paul Harris made little difference to the effectiveness of their scrum, while behind the pack, fly-half Harry Wrightson proved a handful for Whitgiftians to contain. However, Whitgiftians continued to test Walcountians defenders when they had the ball and could have easily added a second try.

Walcountians are still top of Surrey League 1 although Teddington closed the gap to three points after their win against Chipstead. Next Saturday, Walcountians take on Old Haileyburians (kick-off 2:30pm). The venue has yet to be confirmed as Haileyburians might not have the use of their home ground at Ruxley Lane, Ewell.

Old Walcountians:- Norton, Fletcher-Rogers, Abou-Zeid (D), Wehbe, McMullen, Wrightson, Chmielinski, Abou-Zeid (A), Fleming, Evans, Thornton, Thomas, Le Masurier, Bellringer, Henderson.

Subs:- Bateman, Harris.