After 2 weeks enforced inactivity due to snow and ice, we took on new opposition once again in the form of Chipstead, in a very beautiful part of the Surrey countryside.
We had 27 boys present, and Chipstead had approx. 22, and so it was agreed to play 3 periods of 25 minutes each in order to give people some game time to shake off the previous couple of weeks winter blues.
The first period kicked off at 11.30, but Darts didn’t actually start playing until a good 10 minutes into the game , and by that time we found ourselves 14-0 down, as Chipstead’s back line caused us no end of problems running in 2 tries that were converted as we missed countless tackles. The possession we did have in the first 20 minutes was wasted as the boys forgot the basic art of supporting the player who makes a break. Fortunately, 5 minutes from half-time the boys began to remember this art as we ran in 2 well worked tries through Connor Newman and Christian. Neither of these were converted, so at the end of the first period the score was 14-10 in Chipstead’s favour.

After several changes of personnel, 2 new looking sides took the field for the second period, and luckily Darts were at the races from the beginning and looked the side that has been successful in so many games this season. Darts scored 3 unanswered tries in this period – the first through good quality back play from Harry, the second a great forward effort finished off by Zack, and the third a great break from Kenny to score unopposed under the posts. Only one of these tries was converted by Matt (however the contours of the ground and the swirling wind made place kicking quite difficult), so the score at the end of this period was 27-14 in our favour.


Yet another different line-up took the fields for Darts in the final period (a mixture of boys from the 1st and 2nd periods), but there was no let up or change to their performance as they carried on dominating (scorewise). Four tries were scored by the backs in this period as our greater overall numbers took its toll on Chipstead who started to tire and miss tackles. The try scorers in this period were Liam with 2, Matt and Sean, 3 of which were converted by Tom M – who had made enough of a recovery from his shoulder injury in the first period to relieve a tiring Jamie who had a great 2 ½ periods at scrum half. The final score was 53-14 to Darts – but that was a little hard on Chipstead as they certainly didn’t deserve to lose by nearly 40 points, as in the second period they defended their line tremendously and caused us plenty of problems in the first period with some excellent tactical kicking and strong running from their back line
Mention must do to the referee who had a very good game, and dealt well with a very unsavoury incident in the first period, and calmed down a couple of potentially explosive situations in the third period as boys from both sides began to tire.
It was great to see Darts putting into real play what they had practiced in the warm-up beforehand (once we’d woken up), as the forwards kept the ball tight when necessary making good ground – making the most of their dominance up front - and then once enough bodies were sucked into phases, span the ball out wide to the backs who made excellent use of it.
Every one of the boys made positive contributions while they were on the field, and it once again goes to show what depth there is in the squad as were missing 4-5 boys through skiing trips etc.
All in all a good day at the office, but it would be good if we could play at the levels of the second and third period for a whole game in order that we don’t have to play catch-up rugby for a while
A Big Thanks to Chipstead for their hospitality and look forward to our new fixtures against each other in the coming new season.
And we wish their lad, Henry Cheeseman (who unfortunately didn’t play against us) all the best, as his selection for the England U16 squad was announced in the bar after the game. He obviously wasn’t selected for the speed of his beer drinking as he failed to down the pint he was given with the allotted 4 seconds, and so had to wear what was left over his head

Many Thanks to Andy Stent for the match report