National Two South - Round Two Review

Old Albanian and Taunton continued their 100 per cent starts to the season with home victories while Redruth are the only other side to join them on 10 points.

Elsewhere, Bury St Edmunds claimed their first win since promotion from National Three and there were also wins for Canterbury, Clifton, Bishop's Stortford & Worthing. 

Old Albanian 29-19 Redingensians

Old Albanian made it two bonus point wins in a row as they beat newly promoted Redingensians at the Woollams Playing Fields.

A double from Leo Fielding put the OA’s in control at half-time before James Gutteridge scored a try just after the restart for the Rams, but Matthew Gallacher crossed to make the score 19-7.

Gutteridge added his second straight from kick-off, but yet again, they let the hosts get away from them. Despite William Johnson being in the bin for the OA’s, Joshua Taylor squeezed in nine minutes from time for the four try bonus point.

Samir Kharbouch touched down for the Redingensians and thought he had secure his side their first point in National Two, but Christopher May denied them thanks to a late try for the OA’s.

Taunton 32-27 Barnes

Taunton are second in the table after maintaining their winning start, but they were troubled by National Three play-off winners Barnes.

James Adams gave the visitors the lead on 11 minutes, but the home side led 20-5 at half-time thanks to tries from Jack Woolmore and Lewis Webb and two penalties from Gary Kingdom.

Barnes were quicker out of the blocks in the second period as a try and a penalty from Fraser Carlisle and Tom O’Toole respectively,  put the away side just a score behind.

Barnes remained on the coattails of Taunton as the sides exchanged tries with Alexander Spurdle and Samuel Skinner scoring for the hosts, while Jack Franklin and James Hersey crossed for Barnes.

Hersey’s try was scored with one minute remaining and with the score at 32-25, Barnes could’ve potentially snatched a draw if it wasn’t for a try saving tackle from winger Aron Struminski.

Redruth 30-17 Southend

The only other side to take maximum points from their opening two matches is Redruth as they dug deep to secure a win against Southend.

Redruth survived a period in the second-half with just 12 men as Jonathan Drew, Kyle Marriott and Alex Ducker were all shown yellow, but the Reds managed to stay in control as Southend squandered chances.

Man of the match Ben Priddley scored the opening try of the game for Redruth. Murray  Western added the conversion and then nudged over a penalty shortly after.

Priddley was then shown a yellow-card and Southend started to get going as Christopher Vaughan crossed for a good try.

However, no sooner had Southend scored, Redruth were crossing the whitewash at the other end as Thomas Cowen-Dickie scored from a catch and drive to make it 17-7.

Redruth then began to turn the screw after the break as tries from Roger Brett and Ducker, inside four second half minutes, gave them a 20 point advantage.

Southend then hit back through Mitchell Bennett and when Redruth were reduced to 12, the onus was on the visitors to turn this game around.

Instead, Redurth defended valiantly and Southend only managed the one try during the sin-bin period  via Harry Hudson before Western rounded off proceedings with a sweetly struck penalty for the hosts.

Canterbury 49-10 Launceston

Canterbury made it two wins from two as they scored eight tries against Launceston.

Three tries in just over 20 minutes from Courtney Horey , Daniel Smart and Martyn Beaumont got Canterbury off to the perfect start as they took a 19-3 lead after Fraser Honey had slotted over an early penalty for the away side.

Oliver Mulberry got Launceston’s only try of the day just after the half-hour, but a penalty from Tom Best made it 22-10 at half-time to the hosts.

It is clear that Launceston are in a period of transition as they are recovering from a loss of senior players, but take nothing away from the second half performance from Canterbury who ran in five more tries.

They scored in the first minute of the second period as Best sent William Farris over. Sam Rogers made it 32-10 on 50 minutes before Daniel Winchester and a double from Sean Nixon put the icing on the cake for the City Men.

Clifton 53-26 Dorking

Clifton emerged victorious from a game which saw 79 points scored at Cribbs Causeway.

The first points of the day came after 14 minutes as Benjamin Marfo crossed for Dorking, but the visitors were then reduced to 14 men when Kariym Irvine was sin-binned.

This opened the floodgates for Clifton as Samuel Harrison, Callum Roberts and Tooala Vaelaga touched down before half-time and gave them a 24-7 lead.

James Catton made it 24-12 with a try just after the break for Dorking, but a brace from William Pomphrey put the home side in control on 64 minutes.

Charles Stevenson got Dorking’s third try of the afternoon, but Pomphrey then scored his hat-trick to make it 44-21 with 11 minutes remaining.

Marfo got his second, but Clifton were determined to have the final say as Fergus Manners completed the scoring.

Clifton’s James Mackay scored 16 points with Dorking’s Matthew Noble converting three of their tries.

Bishop’s Stortford 18-10 Cambridge

Bishop’s Stortford continued their solid start to the season with a hard fought victory against an improving Cambridge side.

The away side went 0-10 up after 25 minutes as James and Michael Ayrton  both crossed, but when Gerhard Boshoff was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on, it gave Storford a converted penalty try.

Dotta Pierfrancesco then bisected the posts twice from the tee to give the hosts a narrow three point lead at half-time.

After the break, Harry Manner scored Stortford’s only try of the game and the only try of the second period after a lovely cross field kick from Tom Coleman. This clinched victory for hosts and maintained their winning start to this season.

Chinnor 22-24 Bury St Edmunds

Bury St Edmunds claimed their first win since their promotion to National Two South, but did so in nail biting fashion as Chinnor failed to convert their last minute try which would have levelled the game.

The score was 17-17 at half-time after tries from Benjamin Manning, Joesph Vandermolen and Samuel Angell for Chinnor and Samuel Goatley, Beau Gibson and Tim Mann for Bury.

With this game on a knife edge, Goatley got his second try of the game just two minutes into the second half and when Christopher Lord converted, Bury had a 17-24 lead.

Bury then held that advantage for 35 minutes until Nevaro Codlin crossed for Chinnor, but they couldn’t add the extras and were still two points behind with three minutes to go.

However, it was too little too late for Chinnor as Bury held on for their first win of the season.

Worthing 19-16 Old Elthamians

Worthing Raiders recorded their first win of the season thanks to a late penalty scored by Sean O’Hagan.

After a poor start away at Chinnor, the Raiders bounced back with this victory as Alexander Wilcockson got them off to a flyer after nine minutes.

It was then a half of penalties as Worthing’s Sean  O’Hagan slotted over one after converting Wilcockson’s try while Thomas White kicked three over for the OE’s to leave the score at 10-9 at half-time.

O’Hagan then knocked over his second from the tee before Kristian Cook touched down to give the OE’s a 14-16 lead.

O’Hagan levelled proceedings on 66 minutes and the OE’s didn’t take their opportunity to re-take the lead 10 minutes from time as they missed a penalty.

They were made to pay for that as O’Hagan had no such trouble nudging over his fourth of the afternoon to secure Worthing’s first win of the season six minutes from the end.