The Crows vs Marlow II

Recap

After 2 consecutive away trips, the Crows were back at the nest in the October sunshine, with Marlow providing the opposition.

In the pack, after a few cameos off the bench, there was a first start of the season for former club Captain, Jake Mollett at tight head and in the backs, Charlie Shackleford made his Crows debut at inside centre.

The game started in a frantic fashion, with Marlow showing real intent to play the ball wide and fast, stretching the Crowthorne defence. It was immediately evident that Marlow were comfortably the strongest side the Crows had faced this season.

The Crows soon adjusted to the increased pace on previous games and after a poor first scrum, really began to assert dominance up front. On around the 10 minute mark, skipper Tom Stock took a pass from scrum half Matt Jee and shipped it on to Kankudai Osborne, who charged through a gap and made a good 15 metres before being brought down and the ball spilt, awarding a scrum to Marlow.

In an attempt to relieve the pressure, Marlow cleared the ball but it fell to fullback Matt Marriott, who hoofed the ball back deep into Marlow territory and won the race to the bouncing ball, before Shackleford carried to within inches of the line. The ball was quickly recycled and made it’s way to outside centre, John Casey to go over for his first try of the season! Coombes added the extras to make it 7 nil Crowthorne.

The Crows were soon back in the Marlow red zone and after winning a penalty, kicked for touch for a lineout 10 metres out. A strong drive brought the Crows to within a couple of metres of the Marlow line, before hooker, Marc Bullett broke off from the maul and went over in the corner to put Crowthorne 12 nil up.

Down to 14, after a sin bin, Crowthorne faced a period of pressure from Marlow but held firm before again working their way back to the Crowthorne red zone. A fantastic piece of interplay between backs and forwards, led to winger Clive Shepherd diving over in the corner for the 3rd try of the half. 17 nil to the Crows.

Marlow threatened to cross the line themselves late in the first half but a timely interception from Stock, nullified the threat and the halftime whistle followed shortly after.

The 2nd half was a frustrating affair. Having dominated the scrum, it was a blow to the Crows for the set piece to go uncontested after Marlow unfortunately lost 2 front row players to injury. This very much proved to be a leveller and Crowthorne struggled to get back into their rhythm in search of the bonus point score. A flurry of substitutions bough Holden and Joyce into the mix, which began to inject some energy into attack and defence. Eventually, the bonus point score came with the final play of the match. After an excellent turnover, the ball found it’s way to Steggall, who passed to Stock, who in turn found Derlacki. Derlacki straightened up and made great strides into Marlow territory, before releasing Albert Watson, who danced through 5 defenders for an outstanding try to claim all 5 league points for the Crows! Coombes slotted the conversion, making the final score 24 nil to Crowthorne.

Thank you to Marlow for a great game and for providing the sternest test we’ve faced so far. There were some very good performances in the Crowthorne ranks, notably, Shepherd, who took several high balls and proved a constant menace in attack and defence, Shackleford ran strongly in attack and hit hard in defence all day but man of the match went to hooker, Marc Bullett, who put in a huge shift up front, scored a try and threw brilliantly in the line out!

Next week, the Crows travel the short distance to 6th place Phoenix, in what promises to be another hard game. #COYC