Frantic February game

A fresh February morning provide Streatham-Croydon under 14s the chance to battle with an old foe in Warlingham U14s. Previous meetings had included a late loss and a rousing victory at home.

The team started brightly with strong tackling from kick off and having survived Warlingham pressure attacked with the returning Rimarni Richards crossing from the opposition 10m into the right corner. 0-5 Warlingham then endeavoured to get a handhold into the game and after a period of reset scrums managed to cross the whitewash 5-5. A few minutes later despite strong tackling from Romeo Brown out in the wings Warlingham managed to shift the ball centrally and crashed over from a penalty after a high tackling infringement. 10-5 From this point the U14s knew they were in a game and strong running from Jamal Ryan-Coker and then Donte who held onto the ball despite opposition heavy and high tackling winning a penalty from which Rimarni Richards was able to crash over, Conor Oresanya providing the extras 10 - 12

Further penalties followed and Jamal Ryan Coker was able to cross with strong running to extend the lead which was added to by Conor Oresanya's conversion 10-19. Unfortunately the lead was not to last a mix-up at the base of a scrum meant that Warlingham could cross the line 15-19 A further scrum led to a further Warlingham score as the ball flicked out the back of a Warlingham scrum and the winger capitalised to crash over 20-19

Streatham-Croydon were not happy to be behind and runs from Ethan Morris and John Olloh led to Rimarni Richards being able to offload to Romeo Brown to dot down for the try 20-24. From the resulting restart Kubilay Sasmaz gathered and set off on a run providing the ball to Rimarni richards who then returned the ball to Kubilay via after strong clearing out of the ruck before Kofi Oppong continued the run into the 22 before the team was penalised for ruck infringements. Warlingham with the benefit of the bench then proceeded to score with a wiggling run from the fullback to score 27-24. Strong execution of a set move from a lineout shortly after led to Warlingham extending the lead, passing the ball through the hands at pace to cross in the corner. 32-24 The under 14s responded in great fashion with a clean hook from the scrum allowing Rimarni Richards to offload to John Olloh who crossed 32-29

The narrowing of the scores led to a frantic final close to the game with strong play from Streatham- Croydon, Ethan Morris with fantastic breakdown skills set up a counter down the wing with play opening up for Jamal Ryan Coker whose pass was narrowly ruled forward. Following this in the last play of the game Donte once more received the ball beating his men before being forced out by several Warlingham players ending a frantic high paced game. 32-29 to the hosts.