Old Blues vs Cranleigh

Motspur Park hosted a reunion day for some of the older Old Blues on Saturday to tie in with our first home league fixture of the year, and the Old Blues supporters were rewarded with a solid victory against a very strong Cranleigh side. It was apparent from the kick off that Cranleigh were going to offer some physical opposition, and it took a while for our pack to counter the aggression that Cranleigh showed at the breakdown. With credit where it is due, the Cranleigh back row turned over more of our ball at the breakdown that any team has so far this season. However, their discipline was their downfall. An early James Mitra penalty saw us take the lead following a spell of pressure in their 22, but that lead proved short lived when their fly half crashed through some weak tacking to set up the first try of the game. The rest of the first half was a tight and nervy affair with infringements from both sides; it finished 9-8. The Blues were then given the 'hairdryer' from coach Simon Dear, which spurred them into action at the start of the second half. We upped the pace and for 10-15 minutes we were on top of things. A scrum in a good position saw our full back Avron Cunningham break down the blind, but when he was hauled up just short of the line, the ball was knocked back over the line by a Cranleigh player, and David D'Netto was on hand to score the try. The extras were missed, which left us six points clear, and then Cranleigh landed a sucker punch by scoring from the half way. Their fly-half has an impressive boot and he landed the conversion from the touchline, so the lead changed hands with about 15 minutes to go. The Blues then regrouped and focussed on playing the game in the Cranleigh half, which is where we stayed for the rest of the match. More indiscipline from Cranleigh saw James Mitra kick a penalty to put us 17-15 in front, and in the last few minutes a break from fly half Mike Weeks saw him score in the corner. The match finished 22-15 but we know that we will be in for a tough time when we make our trip down to Cranleigh in January.