By Lou Green
Looking to continue the momentum of the previous week’s home victory, Strets made the long journey out to Egham for a crucial middle-of-the-table encounter.
Upon arrival, word began to filter around the L-shaped corridor of a changing room that the fining equipment had been left at the clubhouse. However, the looks of glee shared between the team’s latecomers and casual-dressers were short-lived, as Fine Tsar Michael Parker devised a method to instantly issue e-invoices to the guilty culprits. £2 lighter per head and bewildered at the club’s innovative and advanced fining system, the boys made their way out onto the pitch for a vital away encounter.
Despite a reduced pool of availability, Streatham were able to field a strong squad comprised of both new faces and returning stalwarts, and displayed early dominance in the scrum and the midfield, with an early break involving Westy and Lamont almost handing Streatham the first score of the day. Egham however displayed resilience in defence, and despite conceding ground to a convincing Streatham scrum were able to survive the onslaught. Unlucky not to have points on the board, Strets continued the half with some big forwards carries. However, Egham were able to get themselves on the front foot with some dangerous breaks down the wing, eventually touching down in the corner shortly before the end of the first half.
Strets began the first half 5-0 down and with it all very much to play for. The second half began positively, with the likes of Freddy and Keegan sending would-be tacklers plummeting backwards and the battering-ram centre duo of Lamont and Barney proving tough to handle. The Egham opposition however continued to prove dogged in defence, and were rewarded with a penalty which was driven into touch by Strets’ right hand corner. Egham then utilised their dominant lineout to effect, taking the ball down and driving over the line with a rolling maul to score a converted try. 12-0 down and with time running out, the message from Coach Hawkes was clear: get scoring, and quickly.
Strets’ tough luck continued, with numerous phases of forwards aggression and skill in the backs going unrewarded and speedy breaks from Ibby and Vinny coming close to success. But it just wasn’t to be our day, with Egham again clearing their line and being awarded a penalty only metres out from the Streatham try line. A quick tap and go that caught the Strets defence off guard saw Egham crash over the line to go 17-0 up with just minutes left on the clock. And so, the hunt for the losing bonus point was on, with a ferocious last ditch Streatham attack eventually rewarded as Lamont burst through the Egham defence to score. Unfortunately, it was too late to salvage anything and the match finished 17-5 to Egham.
There are plenty of positives to take away, namely the scrum and evident depth of the SCRFC squad, but also plenty to work on in the coming December weeks which include must-win encounters with Old Johnians and Merton. A big thank you to all of our supporters, staff and players who made the long journey down on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Man (men) of the match: Split equally between Chisel, Parker and Max for a big front row performance that put us on the front foot
Dick of day: Self-allocated by Barney for forgetting the dick of the day outfit