Walden scrape a win away at OC's

Walden travelled down to Upminster to play Old Cooperians and despite it being a dry afternoon the ground was pretty saturated after heavy rain for much of Friday.
So once again Walden were playing on ground that made running rugby difficult and combined with a few players being away and several stepping up from the 2's they put in a credible performance against a team that is fighting to get out of the relegation places.
The match started and Walden had a decent amount of possession. It was clear that the pack was doing well in the set pieces and they soon worked the ball inside the home teams half. Following a scrum 35 metres out OC's were penalised for coming out of the scrum early and Tom Price stepped up to kick a fine penalty. 3 – 0 14 mins.
But Walden went to sleep from the kick off, OC's turned the ball over and sensed an overlap and a couple of passes saw the ball passed out wide and they had a two on one against the Walden Full back. They took the opportunity well to go over in the corner for an unconverted try to go ahead 5- 3 after 16 mins.
Walden had a couple of chances as the backs broke free in broken play but did not quite get things right and failed to add to the score until 5 mins to the end of the half, when OC's were caught not rolling away after a tackle 25 metres out and Price kicked the 3 points to leave Walden leading 6-5 at half time.
Walden dominated the third quarter and scored a try on the 48th minute as they set up a rolling maul from a 5 mtr line out and 2nd row Andrew Lancaster went over in the corner. 11-5.
Walden had one or two further attacks but it was not until the hour mark that they added to the score board as the back 3 combined after an OC's clearance kick and Price ran towards the defence and unfortunately the home scrum half tip tackled him lifting him off the ground and not controlling his landing and the referee had no option to bring out the red card and send him off for dangerous play. After a few minutes recovery Price dusted himself off and kicked the 3 points to put Walden 9 points up at 14 -5.
Frustratingly Walden did not take advantage of the extra man and in fact it was OC's who stepped up a gear as is often the case and the next 15 mins saw them repeatedly attack the Walden line. Walden had a man yellow carded for persistent off side and this evened the numbers up. The home team scored a converted try after a several phases close to the Walden line and then soon after kicked a penalty with 8 mins remaining to retake the lead at 14 – 15.
Walden dug deep and now up to full strength managed to work the ball into the home teams half and with only 4 mins to go gained a penalty when OC's were deemed not to have rolled away after a tackle and Price slotted the kick through the posts to give Walden a 17 – 15 lead.
It stayed like this until the final whistle as Walden forced OC's to try and play out of their 22 and with only 14 men this was beyond them and the ball was turned over and Walden gratefully kicked it off the park to take the 4 points.
It was hardly a performance to set the world on fire but a win is a win and sometimes you have to win ugly. OC's are certainly a better team than their league position would imply and I can see them getting a couple of results that might just see them stay up.