Warlingham on easy Street (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Warlingham on easy Street

9:47am Monday 11th March 2013 in Rugby Union By Peter Upton

Tom Street scored two tries as Warlingham eased past Heathfield & Waldren 31-9 on Saturday.

With neither side in either promotion or relegation zones it could have descended into a lack lustre affair, but both sides played with ambition and commitment as if their lives depended upon it.

Heathfield infringed right from the kick off and full back Kozminski opened the scoring with a long range penalty.

Fly half Asa Wright piled on the pressure with an inch perfect bouncing kick to the visitors five metre touch and the Warlingham pack sensed a score. Having secured the ball they drove for the line but a knock on thwarted their endeavours.

Heathfield struck back with their first penalty after an offside offence, but scrum half Joe McEvoy then made a strong run supported by flanker Tom Street. Again a knock on halted the move and Heathfield kicked deep into the Warlingham half.

Winger Jack Atkinson looked to be under pressure in his own 22 but a booming kick took play back into the Heathfield half.

Kozminski put Warlingham ahead with a second penalty and Warlingham had their tails up.  An inside step from Wright put him into a gap and his well timed pass to Street secured the first try. Kozminski converted and then struck a third penalty to put Warlingham in the driving seat at the turn round.

Heathfield raised their game in the second half and grabbed a second penalty, but determined backs running failed to earn them a try as any forward momentum was snuffed out by crunching tackles, particularly from No 8 Ollie Dodwell who relished smashing back any strike runner.

Centre Brad Saffery again showed great improvement by making ground at every opportunity and linking well with winger Jon Osborne.

Warlingham's pack stamped their authority on the game and, when the ball was quickly recycled Wright swept to the blind side and found Street in the tram lines. With much to do Street just grounded the ball before he was bundled over the corner flag but the score was good.  From on the touchline Kozminski struck the conversion well but hit the upright.

Lock Neil Robson was harshly yellow-carded and Heathfield completed their scoring with a third penalty.

However, Warlingham were not done and captain Zack King slipped through the traffic for the third try and this was immediately followed by prop Kieran Scutt crashing over for the bonus point fourth try whilst lurking out on the wing.

After the game, head coach Ben Stobert said: "This was a better performance and we stuck to the task well. Our commitment has improved and we played for the full 80 minutes, which is pleasing."

Warlingham: Nunn, J Delderfield, Scutt, L Delderfield, Robson, Street, King, Dodwell, McEvoy, Wright, Saffery, Skinner, Osborne, Atkinson, Kozminski. Replacemebts: Abou-Zeid, Wrightson, Dowling.