Bromley RFC VS Crowborough RFC

BROMLEY STUN CROWBOROUGH WITH VIBRANT PERFORMANCE

The visitors to Barnet Wood Road on Saturday were Crowborough who sat just above Bromley at the top end of the table so the home side knew they were in for a serious examination. Both teams’ results recently have been very good so an exciting game was anticipated. It was obvious from the early exchanges that Crowborough had come to play as they were running the ball from everywhere and it was all hands to the pumps for the Bromley defence to contain their quick running backline. However, Bromley were not docile and at six minutes Tommy Scott crashed over after a good team move but the excellent referee adjudged the final pass to be forward.

Four minutes later they were back at it again with prop Banfield making a punchy break, offloading to George Scott who drew the cover and passed to the recent prolific hooker Holland to score and with Johnny Griffiths converting the score was 7-0. Crowborough kept coming at Bromley completely ignoring kicking even in their own twenty two but the home team were more pragmatic, stuck to their own style of playing and on twenty two minutes were rewarded with another score. A solid scrum about twenty metres out released good ball for the backs allowing Hawkins to come into the line and create the space for vice captain Robbie Brown to do the honours and dot the ball down and with the conversion it was 14-0.

Going into the last ten minutes of the half Bromley began to turn the screw with the forwards producing lots of ball and the backs looking very threatening and the inevitable scores came. On thirty minutes a rare sight a Crowborough kick but unfortunately for them it was not the greatest and it was gobbled up by Hawkins and he set off on a mazy run and the prolific hooker Holland was on his shoulder to take the pass, surely he was not in again, no he created the gap for George Scott to motor over the line for another converted try. The pressure was now constant and on thirty five minutes there was another electrifying break by the Bromley backs and Crowborough only contained this pressure by conceding penalties. From the last of these, the Bromley forwards produced a set move with Banfield being the beneficiary as he rumbled over. Not converted leaving the half time score at 26-0.

Turning round into the wind and playing up the slope was going to be a stiff task for the home side and the Crowborough players were geeing each other up to give it a blast. However, there was no need to worry as Bromley controlled large chunks of the remaining forty minutes and Crowborough rarely got anywhere near the opposition twenty two. For twenty minutes or so it was a bit of a dog fight to exert that control but the Bromley defence was relentless allowing their opposite numbers little space or territory to work in and with the Bromley scrum becoming increasingly dominant the signs looked good. On sixty minutes Bromley surged up the right hand side of the park and after multiple phases, the overlap was created on the left hand side but the final pass was a little rushed and inaccurate. Alex Griffiths made a valiant effort to get hold of it but the Crowborough winger grabbed it near his own line and set off down the touchline evading three would-be tacklers, somehow managing to stay on the field of play and scampered away to score. Great individual try and Bromley scratching their heads as to how that happened. 26-5

Ten minutes later another hasty clearance by Crowborough was picked up by Hawkins who linked with the forwards and Ansell set off on a little goose stepping dance and slipped a nice pass away to the ever present Brown to go in under the posts, converted 33-5. Bromley tails were now up ad three minutes later they manufactured a super driving move up the pitch involving the whole team. The ball eventually ended up in Hawkins’ hands and everybody expected him to have a dart but no he stopped dead, had a team meeting with himself, and decided to float a kick towards the left hand corner leaving Alex Griffiths looking second favourite to catch it. He made a miraculous leap snatched the ball from the grasp of his opposite number and scored. Great stuff.

With a few minutes remaining, this looked like game over but to Crowborough’s credit they came right back at Bromley and after a number of surges at the line they got over and with the conversion this left the final score at 38-12 to Bromley.

This was an excellent win for Bromley and a real team performance with everyone contributing. Set pieces were good, defence solid and exciting attacking rugby at times. This all comes on the back off getting the many injured players back up and running and it was good to see Chance getting some game time, Pillow back after a long lay off and Carroll appearing for the twos after a nasty shoulder injury. Although they scored thirty eight points they will probably feel that they should have finished off two or three other great moves and were probably only denied by rushing the final pass or offload.

The match itself was a fine spectacle and Crowborough added to this with their running style, never say die attitude and were not helped by losing two players to injury and we wish these individuals well.

Meanwhile, the second team were renewing acquaintances with Beccehamians twos at Sparrows Den. This was the third time they have met this season with Bromley emerging narrow winners in the other two match ups. This was their second league meeting and what a game this turned into. With fifteen minutes to go Bromley were quite a long way behind on the scoreboard and all seemed lost. Their only option was to throw caution to the wind and go on all out attack and this mainly young side did this with gusto to overhaul their opponents and emerge winners 45-43. Great game and a credit to both sides.

Next week the first team entertain Charlton Park in a rearranged league fixture and I believe a third/fourth team are travelling to play a Dorking side in a friendly. They are making a day of it and travelling by coach – good luck with that.