Ton-up Walcountians put Trojans to the sword

The visitors had over half their regular squad missing because of Covid-19 infections and had unsuccessfully asked the RFU for a cancellation. Their makeshift team was unable to cope with the pace and power of Walcountians who were on the attack from kick-off. It took the Counts just over a minute to open the scoring with a try from prop Remy Claustres.

From the start, Walcountians dominated all aspects of forward play with the pack, anchored by a solid front row of Jonny Evans, Callum Tilleray and Remy Claustres, dominating the set scrums, the lineouts where Will Thornton and Joe Lawrence won both their own throws and the opposition’s, and in the loose where powerful ball carrying by lock Pete Thomas and relentless foraging by flankers Tom Brown and Rob Fleming turned possession Walcountians’ way.

Walcountians’ second try came after 12 minutes when hooker Callum Tilleray won a strike against the head and scrum-half Seb Chmielinski broke down the blindside, chipped the ball over the Trojans’ defence and took advantage of a fumble by the Trojans full-back to touch down.
The match had barely restarted when Walcountians scored their third try. Prop Jonny Evans broke from midfield and found centre Harry Wrightson in support before putting Remy Claustres clear for his second try of the day.

The Counts ran in three more tries before half-time. The first, after 18 minutes came when prop Jonny Evans intercepted a pass and sprinted from 50 metres out to score. The other two tries came from centre Dany Abou-Zeid. The first, in the 26th minute, finished off a well-timed threequarter move. The second, 10 minutes later, saw the compact Abou-Zeid shrug off three attempted tackles as he went over to score.

Trojans finally got on the scoresheet after 30 minutes when their fly-half Toogi Long banged over a towering penalty from just inside the 10-metre line. It was destined to be their only score of the day.

Walcountians had the slope in their favour in the second half and put Trojans to the sword with nine more tries. The first came barely a minute after the restart when Ross Norton flung a long pass out to Harry Wrightson who spectacularly outpaced the Trojans defence from halfway out and touched down under the posts.

Four minutes later, winger Dharshan Vadivelu joined the list of tryscorers after a powerful drive by No8 Joe Lawrence created the space for him to accelerate clear of the covering Trojans defenders to score.

Callum Tilleray joined fellow front-rowers Jonny Evans and Remy Claustres on the scoresheet after 10 minutes of the second half in a carbon copy of Evans’ earlier try when he intercepted a pass and outsprinted the stunned Trojans defenders to touch down.
Trojans barely had time to settle after the restart when the Counts ran in their tenth try of the day. Winger Nino Stylianou and lock Pete Thomas combined to put Harry Wrightson away to score his second try of the day.

Walcountians threw on their replacements Ed Bellringer, James Ford and Andy Togbolah to replace tired legs and Togbolah wasted little time by getting on the scoresheet before he had warmed up by running onto a cleverly-placed box kick from Seb Chmielinski and crossing for a try.
The Counts 12th try was the third to come from the first passage of play after the restart and, this time, Harry Wrightson was the creator by opening a massive gap in the Trojans’ defence for Ross Norton to finish off the move by racing through for a try.

Andy Togbolah scored his second try in the 25th minute after a powerful drive by Pete Thomas into the heart of the Trojans defence created second phase ball from which a quick threequarter move was started and, two minutes later, Seb Chmielinski scored his second after taking an offload from Remy Claustres and leaving the Trojans defence for dead.

The outpaced and outgunned Trojans XV however refused to give up and, five minutes from the end, took play into the Walcountians 22 and won a penalty from which they launched a forward drive. From this move, tight-head prop Richard Sparkes narrowly missed scoring as he was held up by a determined Walcountians defence.

However, Walcountians were still hungry for points and crossed the 100 points mark three minutes from full-time when Pete Thomas put Nino Stylianou away to score.

Next Saturday, Walcountians take on second-placed Weybridge Vandals. Kick-off at Brownacres, Walton-on-Thames is at 2pm.

Old Walcountians:- Norton, Vadivelu, Wrightson, Abou-Zeid, Stylianou, Cleary, Chmielinski, Evans, Tilleray, Claustres, Thornton, Thomas, Brown, Fleming, Lawrence.

Subs:- Bellringer, Ford, Togbolah