Cobham's young lions too strong for Old Cats

Cobham continued their highly successful start to the season with another impressive victory, this time against the newly promoted Sussex side Old Caterhamians.

The Cobham forwards were outstanding in loose play, supporting each other well to create good chances for the threequarters but with good possession from lineouts in the opposition 22 proved to be unstoppable in their drives for the line, hooker Mark Bennett scoring a hat trick of tries from these moves.

Cobham backs were also in tremendous form, Dan Taylor and James Oliver playing particularly well, and only good defence by Caterhamians prevented more than one try from the Cobham threequarters. Overall Cobham scored seven tries, wing forward Jack Davison scoring two tries to demonstrate the excellent form in the Cobham back row, again providing an exceptional contribution to team performance. The pace and support of the Cobham pack stretched the Caterhamian defence time and again with Billy Davison, Imille Keyser and Tristan Lee driving hard in attack and after the initial start of the match when the visitors showed some promise the strong Cobham pack soon took control which lasted the entire match.

At the start of the match Cobham were quickly into their stride, Spencer Franks and James Oliver combining well to almost score a try in the opening minutes and winger Matt Lawrence showed some exceptional pace in the early attacks. Having won a lineout in the Caterhamians 22, a good catch followed by an unstoppable drive by the Cobham forwards resulted in a try, Mark Bennett scoring his first and James Oliver converting.

Cobham kept up the pressure with forward drives and pacey threequarter moves and could easily have scored more but it was just before the half time that Cobham extended their lead. Caterhamians had mounted an attack but a relieving kick from Spencer Franks was chased up strongly by the Cobham backs and centre James Oliver gathered possession on the half way line and sprinted the full fifty metres to score an exceptional try, beating the cover defence for pace. Shortly afterwards Cobham won a lineout close to the visitors line and in a repeat of the move for the first try, Mark Bennett scored his second, being driven over the line by a highly co-ordinated Cobham forwards' drive.

After the interval Cobham continued their control of play, Kevin Jarvis almost scoring in the first move of the half. The Cobham scoring soon followed, wing forward Simon Mills scoring a try from another Cobham forwards drive from a lineout to give Cobham a 22-0 lead. Further good work by the Cobham pack at a lineout from a penalty gave Mark Bennett his third try as the forwards drive again proved unstoppable.

Simon Mills was forced to leave the field through injury but was was replaced by James Green who was quickly involved in a move that came close to scoring. There was very little tactical kicking from the Cobham half backs since the ball was confidently passed along the line virtually every time, and with the threequarters running at pace Caterhamians were forced to defend strongly.

Caterhamians proved that they were far from fully defeated, scoring a try after a speculative kick ahead was followed up at pace, winger Will Rowland scoring in the corner. But a penalty by James Oliver got Cobham back into their scoring regime and in the final stages Cobham finished off with two more tries, both from Jack Davison. The first was the result of a sharp drive by Imille Keyser, and Jack Davison finished off the move with a strong run over the line, and the second was from yet another forwards' drive following a lineout.

Cobham can be well pleased with their performance, which was both exceptional and highly entertaining, and are clearly set for a very successful season if they can maintain this form.

Cobham: N Sutton, M Lawrence, J Oliver, S Burton, K Jarvis; D Taylor (C Perry), S Franks; T Lee, M Bennett, J Bright, B Davison, I Keyser (M Cox), S Mills (J Green), J Davison, G Hart

Report by Tony Maddocks