Dorking snatch late brace to leave hosts reeling

HENLEY 2nds, having a break from league action, went down to defeat in a friendly fixture at home to Dorking 2nds last Saturday.

The hosts started the game strongly and were on the front foot straight away as Barney Stentiford called an early line to himself in the Dorking half before the forwards started to go make the hard yards.

The Dorking defence were able to get the upper hand and were able to hit Henley backwards forcing a mistake.

Henley stayed in the Dorking half but a line-out didn’t go to plan and Dorking were able to release the pressure and took play into the Henley half. It was now their turn to have the attacking job and punished Henley for their poor discipline. This resulted in two tries for the visitors and the second one saw a yellow card given to Henley.

From the resulting kick-off, Henley were able to get the ball back and a couple of carries from the impressive Ollie Rouiller and Morgan Poiner allowed the backs to have some space and attack. A fine switch from Matt Cooke to winger Oscar Busby saw him dance his way to the line to reduce the deficit.

Dorking bounced straight back with a try of their own but the last try of the half belonged to Henley. Christian Floyd and Rouiller with good carries saw space created for the backs. Simple hands saw Rhyan Scott Young score to reduce the half-time arrears to 19-12.

Henley started the second half brightly, but a lost scrum saw Dorking run in a try. A second shortly followed, a couple of missed tackles allowed spaces to open up and Dorking spotted them. Henley showed resilience and fought their way back. Cooke, now at fly half, brought the line speed up and helped to force mistakes. Moments later, the line speed in defence allowed him to intercept a pass and sprint in from 40 metres.

Soon afterwards good forward pressure and the ball was recycled quickly and it was Tom David putting his fellow centre, Will Hibberdine, in a gap which he crashed through to score. This took it back to a one-score game.

However, Henley ran out of steam and conceded two late tries.