We welcomed London Irish for a second time this season on a blustery and overcast Sunday morning for the third match in the U14A's Waterfall Cup campaign.
Our first encounter with The Irish back in October was a fairly one sided affair but clearly they had taken a lot away from that visit to Warlingham and they returned this Sunday determined to play hard and come away with a different result. Form the moment the whistle blew their new-found fortitude was obvious and strong carries from both sets of forwards were met with crunching tackles and fierce rucking, neither team willing to take a backward step in the early exchanges which were played predominately at the Irish end of the pitch.
It was a feisty first 10 minutes but Warly certainly had the better ball retention and were winning at the contact areas and breakdowns. It was a difficult day for shifting the ball but after some really solid work from the forwards the ball found its way to Man of the Match George Forkan and with a trademark skip and a jump he managed to dive over the line to break the deadlock and frustrate Irish efforts to get a foothold in the game.
The rest of the first half continued in the same vein with Warlingham having the lion share of the possession and actually squandering a few chances out wide before the hard charging Xavier Simmonds-Dance broke the Irish line and stuck the ball down under the posts for a well deserved second Warly try which was converted by the trusty boot of George Forkan.
After the break the Irish had more favourable wind conditions and used this to kick for the corner and for a long period kept Warlingham pegged back to their own try line. Despite numerous sorties Mick couldn't find a way through the dogged Warlingham defence and slowly we made our way back up the pitch and turned defence into attack with James Gathercole sprinting through the broken Irish line to touch the ball down for try number three. Shortly after that Xavier S-D took his personal tally to 2 (conv. G. Forkan) and made the game a sound and thoroughly deserve victory for the pretty formidable U14s.
The parents and spectators witnessed a very impressive display on a day difficult for playing rugby. It was nice to welcome Harry Webzell back to the team after some time away with injury and whilst it genuinely was a 'whole team' performance particular praise must go to loose head prop Dylan Murphy for an outstanding display.
Next stop - Battersea Ironside