U15s 95% there

The strongest U15 side that Streatham had put out all season made the trip down to Farnham rugby club on Remembrance Sunday. With memories of the comeback versus Warlingham still in their minds the aim of the game was to start fast and strong in order to play their game.

Having impeccably observed a two minutes silence the boys recieved the kick off and with strong running were soon on top. Strong defensive tackling often bundling the opposition into touch led to the game remaining tight for the opening five minutes. The referees whistle was to deny Streatham a try after good work led to Jordan Unokesan turning over the ball Kofi Oppong working the ball out to captain Jamal Ryan- Coker who strode forward through the defense only to be penalised for a hand off to the face. Streatham-Croydon's defensive work rate was high throughout the opening stages and solid maul defense led to Kubilay Sasmaz ripping the ball out a mall and passing the ball for Rimarni Richards and then Charlie Baldwin to charge down field into the oppositions 22. A wayward Farnham kick from a penalty led to Streatham opening the scoring as Kofi Oppong shifted the ball to Charlie Baldwin who ran through midfield to cross the whitewash. 0-5

A knock on from the kick off reciept gave Farnham momentum into the Streatham half and from a scrum centrally and an 8 pick up and goose step breached the Streatham defense out wide levelling the scores. Streatham began to absorb Farnham momentum but the home team were still able to breach the defense following a penalty for offside with a clever three man draw around the exposed blindside 10-5

An infringement in the Farnham lineout led to a Streatham scrum from which Rimarni Richards at number 8 picked from his own 10m to the opposition 22 winning a penalty in the process. From that penalty captain Jamal Ryan-Coker sped over in the wide channel to equalise the scores 10-10. In the resultant kick off reciept Jordan Unokesan took and carried well but Farnham turned over in the resulting ruck. Linford Annan strongly tackled on the blindside for a Streatham lineout. The game sprang back into life minutes later when Remaro Willaims ripped the ball from a Farnham lineout maul and carried well before offloading to Rimarni Richards who sythed through midfield reaching the try line whereupon he was high tackled leading to a penalty try for which Conor Oresanya slotted the conversion. 10-17

The game remained at the same score with penalties reducing both teams play to a stop start fashion, Strong lineout moves gave Streatham a platform with Nathan Addy-Walker and Ben Crewe in the back line able to gain yardage from crashing runs. A turnover after a scrum combined with a rampaging run from Ethan Morris led to Streatham coming close to scoring once more only to run out of support players and concede a penalty.

A long kick downfield and subsequent lineout from Farnham placed the defense all at sea allowing the Farnham centre to run through the arms of defenders to cross the try line. Conor Oresanya prevented the scores being levelled with a fantastic kick charge down 15-17

The scores remained this way for a long period despite Streathams best efforts, Ben Crewe accelerating through defenders from number 8 and Nathan Addy-Walker running from deep. A clumsy penalty being given away and even clumsier defence in the last five minutes led to Streathams downfall not covering the wide areas allowed Farnhams 8 to embark on a looping run and crash over. The boys were not beaten though and attempted to rescue the situation in the last 5 minutes however strong tackling led to a penalty going Farnhams way with a quick tap allowing Farnham to exploit tired unretreating Streatham legs.

A very solid performance with many positive aspects but unfortunately 5 minutes away from perfection.