Watford Win At Woking

After a poor journey leading to a severely cut down warm up, along with only fielding a bare 15 players due to a spate of injuries and unavailability’s, Watford still started the stronger of the two sides. The pack showed little ring rust at the set piece, picking up where they left from last season with some typically dominant work at the scrum and lineout. Unfortunately, at times the same could not be said of work in the loose. The visitors struggled with the referees interpretation of the breakdown and whilst penalties weren’t conceded, possession was too frequently turned over to a marauding Woking back row. With Watford dominating territory (if not always possession), pressure eventually told. An excellent break from youngster Luke Diston saw him beat three opposition players before keeping a cool head to pass inside to Paul Dunlop who showed good pace to score under the posts. Unfortunately, this was the only time Watford troubled the scoreboard during the first half. Woking came back into the game, and some uncharacteristically weak Watford tackling let the home side score two unanswered tires to take the lead. Watford still looked more than capable of scoring, however were guilty of wasting try scoring opportunities once breaks had been made. With time running out. Woking scored again after a series of drives to give themselves a deserved 19-7 lead.

Watford emerged a different team for the second half, having identified the problems of the first 40 they immediately set out to rectify them. A renewed physicality at the breakdown meant much quicker, cleaner ball for the half backs to work with. Allied to a much improved structure in their game plan and a willingness to keep the ball in hand, Watford soon clawed a score back after fine work from Diston and Powell saw Nelson score in the corner. Diston and Steve James both looked threatening with the ball in hand, each of them making clean breaks only to be halted by some excellent individual tackling from the home defence. Woking’s struggles at the set piece were growing, Watford regularly turning over the ball at the scrum whilst Powell and Connolly were able to exert pressure at the lineout. With 20 minutes to go, Watford levelled the scores. A break from winger Richard Yates was collected by prop Luke Bees. Finding himself with only the full back to beat, Bees showed excellent footwork to step the cover and score in the corner. With Watford finishing the stronger of the two sides, the winning try came from Luke Hammill, playing out of position at 13. A strong barrelling run took him over the whitewash, McGee adding the extras to ensure Watford won by a score.

Watford can be pleased with their afternoons work. Despite missing 8 regular first team players, they exhibited their now trademark strength at the set piece whilst the versatility of Hammill along with an excellent showing from Diston showed the back line has much depth to it. Along with this, Watford’s hard work on the fitness during the off season showed as they seemingly grew in strength as the game progressed. That said, there is still much to work on if last seasons second place is to be improved upon in a much tougher league.

Watford would also like to thank Woking, who passed a number of their first team squad players onto WRFC’s 2nd XV in order to ensure that two games could go ahead.

Watford 1st XV: Bees, Sanchez, Nelly, McClennon, Kingsford, Hancock, Connolly, Powell, Hopkins, McGee, Yates, Dunlop, Hammill, Diston, James

Tries: Dunlop, Nelson, Bees, Hammill

Con: McGee x 3

Man of the Match: Luke Diston. Always a threat with the ball in hand, showed excellent pace and spatial awareness when in attack. Strong in defence, and solid under the high ball.