Stephens’ debut try sees off old rivals

■By KEVIN BEAL

Dorking……………29pts

Barnes…………… 24pts

DORKING had to dig deep in another tight game between two old rivals, with the lead changing hands twice and result in doubt right up to the final whistle.

Barnes had the upper hand in the forwards and Dorking in the backs with the match coming down to the final move of the game when debutant Gareth Stephens crossed out wide and Henry Anscombe converted.

Barnes kicked off down the slope and won a penalty which Jack Martin kicked to the corner. Their forwards executed the perfect catch and drive, held up illegally by the Red and Whites and won another penalty. A carbon copy lineout saw hooker Josh Archer over for the first score of the day, converted by Martin.

Dorking came back from the restart with Finn Osborne and Harry Elbrow leading the charge, but with their lineout under pressure, particularly from Barnes’ Joe Murphy, struggled to string together meaningful phases until the half-hour mark when Toby McRae went over in the corner following a masterly delayed pass from fly-half Tom Hardwick.

An offside decision handed Barnes the ball and field position, with the resulting five-metre lineout ending in the inevitable catch and drive and score for prop George Dean. Martin’s conversion was good.

There was time for a restart and as Osborne broke free and looked to offload the ball, a stray Barnes hand deliberately knocked the ball forward to give the home side a penalty and lineout. Taking the ball off the top, Jasper King found Tom Howe who was in under the posts unopposed for a converted score.

And there was further time in the half for debutant Max Coyle to take Dorking into the lead as he found himself with the ball and space.

Barnes were quick out of the blocks in the second half as wing Paul Webb latched on to a mistimed Dorking catch and scorched up the touchline for a converted score to retake the lead.

With the game finely poised neither side could break through the other’s defence until Osborne charged down Dylan Monro’s clearance kick and Anscombe and Howe combined to put McRae in the clear and Dorking back into the lead.

That is how it stayed until deep into injury time, when Martin slotted a penalty to give Barnes what looked like the winning score, only for Dorking’s other debutant Stephens to thwart them in the final move of the game.

Dorking director of rugby Armand Roux said: “This was a typical Dorking v Barnes game, tightly contested which went down to the wire. I was proud of the way we kept in the game with our defence holding firm.”