Marlow Colts 25 vs Guildford Colts 13
Marlow continued their strong opening to the season with another victory but this time against tougher opposition. David Dick, former MRFC player and Coach for Guildford, brought a large squad of players, supporters and a referee to Marlow for the match last Sunday and no one was disappointed with the quality and spirit of the encounter at Riverwoods.
Guildford opened up the scoring and dominated the lineouts throughout, catching & driving two tries across Marlow's line from set pieces and proving more than a match for our forward power. Not the largest of sides, Marlow make an impact in other areas and were soon noted by the opposition for their hunger for the ball and competitive loose play.
The Colts were bolstered this week by the addition of new recuits from the U17s and our local University, continuing the close links established last season with "freshers" playing for us, on and off, through the season. These players made a considerable impact at the base of the scrum and out in the backs where we were able to run in several tries through Nick "Tev" Kapoor, Haydn Parkes and Nick Carvey.
Ditching the strategic game plan and moving to a "run everything" policy seemed to liven the backs up and soon had Marlow applying more pressure to Guildford and dictating the play as well as racking up the points.
Later in the game, Guildford kindly allowed us to bring back to the field a player as we were short of numbers in the pack and this showed the true spirit in which the game was played, refereed and supported by the coaches.
The new No8 and No9 combination started to gel, stifling the opposition and releasing the backline to good effect, allowing the Colts centre "Tev" to continue making telling breaks, stopping his opposite number in his tracks and crossing the line. This earned "Tev" a well deserved Man of the Match award.
The Colts were skippered this weekend by Charlie Fleming who led from the front and got the best from familiar faces and new recruits covering 3 age groups! Great first games for Cameron and Ross following their leap from the U17s into Colts and hopefully enjoying the encounter.
Marlow ran out convincing winners and an appreciative Guildford crowd, including the Guildford RFC Chairman, applauded both teams to the clubhouse where they stayed late into the afternoon! Out thanks to David Dick for bringing a quality team, the referee and his support during the game when short of forward players.
And to the victors....watch out for next week's game!