Encouraging signs as Woking Rugby Club prepare for start of new season.

Woking rugby club will play their first competitive league fixture since March 2019 when they host Surrey University this Saturday. It’s been a tough 18 months but having completed two preseason fixtures there are signs that things on the pitch are starting to head in the right direction with an encouraging first half display away at Merton RFC in a 56-7 defeat last Saturday.

Having had to hastily find a fixture when their original opposition called off due to a Covid outbreak in their team. Woking travelled to Merton RFC to take on an opponent from the league above.

With a mixture of old and new faces Woking started sluggishly allowing Merton an easy score in the first couple of minutes. Merton’s try fired up the Woking forwards who went on to dominate the next 20 minutes in the scrums and loose. Nearing the end of the first half, Woking found themselves 21-0 down after Merton capitalised on a couple of handling errors to score well worked breakaway tries.

Undeterred and determined to end the half with a score their efforts had deserved the Woking pack forced a series of penalties before their pressure told and crashed over for a try under the posts, closing the first half 21-7.

Woking struggled to replicate the same levels of performance in the second half despite a strong first 5 minutes. Notably loosing their forward advantage when Merton had to go to uncontested scrums. This changed the game and with a surplus of players coming from the Merton bench Woking tired and struggled to match their opponents on what was a very hot afternoon.

With players returning from injury and unavailability Woking remain confident that they can build on the first half performance at Merton and kick off the new season with a positive result and performance.