HOME SWEET HOME AS WOKING ENJOY SECURE FIRST WIN OF SEASON

The early exchanges were evenly contested with the visitors shading it as Woking indiscipline once again allowed their opponents to gain good field position without ever really threatening the Woking line. As the half went on the Woking pack began to get the upper hand which enabled them to bring their back line into play.

Midway through the half Woking debutant Matt Grimes kicked deep into the Mitcham 22m to collect his own kick as the defender failed to deal with the bouncing ball. A few minutes later Mitcham reduced the deficit with a well taken drop goal following a period of sustained pressure where the home defence held firm.

Woking came back strongly and dominated the remainder of the half with flanker Josh Claydon sprinting over following some strong running. Debutant Carl Jacobz also crossed from close range as Mitcham struggled to contain their hosts which was quickly followed by a further not long after by second row and man of the match Kieran Williamson.

Half time: Woking RFC 22 - 3 Mitcham & Carshalton

Woking started the second half as they finished the first, from the restart Mitcham failed to deal with the kick enabling Josh Claydon to collect the restart before feeding Chris Wallis to score under the posts. Mitcham defended resolutely without ever really threatening the Woking half, only gaining ground from the occasional infringement.

Skipper Jacob Woods was the next to score, collecting the ball from a set lineout move to break the defensive line 40m out and charge through to score leaving the covering defenders in his wake. Mike Aitchison set up Chris Swan with a well-paced cross field kick that the winger collected to out sprint his opponent to score in the corner. Chris Wallis completed the scoring with another well worked try following good phase play between forwards and backs.

After the game Head Coach Mark Rose said, ‘It’s great to get the first win and there are a lot of positives and improvements from last week. Our penalty count is still far too high and something we need to work on. We have a few players who picked up knocks so we will say how that impacts the squad over the week before our trip to Croydon RFC next week’.

Final score: Woking RFC 44 - 3 Mitcham & Carshalton RFC

Man of the Match: Kieran Williamson