Good away win at local rivals Cantabs

After a wet morning Walden turned up to Cantabs with the ground suiting the home team in being both soft underfoot and quite narrow.
Following a well observed minutes silence the home team were first to apply pressure as they won a penalty at the first scrum, kicking towards the corner and following a couple of drives to the line managed to score a converted try to go 7 nil up after 5 mins.
The different style of play between the 2 teams was soon made apparent when Walden regained possession and attacked using the pace of their backs combined with the forwards as scrum-half Will Brown made a break just inside their half, he offloaded to captain and 2nd row James Gosden who sped towards the fullback sending a perfect pass to centre Mark Kimberley who went under the posts to level the score after 8 mins.
Cantabs regained the lead with a penalty when Walden strayed offside in front of the posts. 10 -7 after 12 mins.
6 mins later after several phases Walden used quick hands to feed the ball down the blind side to give winger Ben Nash the chance to go past his opposite number, standing the full back up he went round under the posts for a converted try taking the score to 14 -10.
On the half hour mark Walden scored their 3rd try when they attacked down the centre and as the backs were stopped 15 metres out an overlap was quickly spotted and the ball was passed down the line for Prop Harry Stocking to go over unopposed to stretch the lead to 19 – 10.
Cantabs had not given up and used their strengths to take the next score when they kicked to the corner and used a well drilled line out to drive over in the corner to narrow the gap to 19 – 15. They then attacked again using their forwards to pick and drive towards the try line and with half time looming they made one final effort to get over the line but some valiant defence by Walden held the ball up over the line and the whistle went for half time.
The second half started with Walden in the ascendency, with some astute kicking they worked the ball towards the Cantabs 22 and from the line out Walden pressure told as they failed to clear and had to dot the ball down in the in goal area to concede 5 metre scrum. Great work by the Walden tight 5 even though they had to make a couple of changes in the front row meant they won the ball cleanly and Cantabs had no answer as Mark Kimberley went over for his second and bonus point try following some good work by Matt Holden, 26 – 16.
The game was effectively put out of reach of the home side as they tried to launch an attack deep inside the Walden half, the ball went loose and centre Mitch Clare was first to it, picking it up and running the length of the pitch to score Walden’s fifth try 31-16.
To Cantabs credit they worked hard right to the end and had the final score with yet another driving maul with 5 mins remaining to narrow the gap to 31 – 20.
However some good defence by Walden denied them any further scores and Walden took the 5 point win.
A good match played in the right spirit and Walden now face high flying Sudbury back at home and will know the will have to be in top form to stand a chance of gaining ground on the visitors who sit a place above them in the league.