Trinity A XV 45 – 5 Chipstead II
Trinity A XV welcomed Chipstead to LMA for a friendly fixture as part of a double header with the 1s playing Eastbourne on the adjacent pitch. Trinity welcomed back Charlie GM who produced a MoM performance, skipper Greeners playing 9 and the experienced partnership of Crouchy, Sparky and Stanners at 10, 12 & 13. Trinity knew they would face a typical stiff challenge from local rivals Chipstead who play in the division above.

Chipstead kicked off and Trinity immediately took the game to the oppo playing down the slope – pressure resulted in penalties and Alex Scott crossed for the first score after a quick tap close to the line, Greenwood converts. Whilst Trinity had the majority of possession they were unable to unlock the Chipstead defence due to strong tackling and the home side being guilty of white line fever. It needed a moment of magic to regain momentum and this came from Kitan Taiwo who scooped up a loose pass in his own 22 and then beat several defenders to run the length of the pitch and cross for a fantastic individual try. Further pressure from the home side resulted in Zou barging his way over for a third score which completed the scoring for the first half.

The feeling at half time was that despite Trinity’s dominance they had been guilty of missing opportunities and playing up the slope in the 2nd half could be tricky. Chipstead were able to build some possession and this led to Trinity needing to defend on their line, the Hoffmann brothers were at the forefront of the action and young Seb Robertson tackled everything that came his way. Trinity then produced a period of impressive expansive rugby, Ben Donovan produced a great inside pass which pushed Trinity into the oppo 22 – Scotty, who carried well all afternoon, then crossed for his 2nd try which was followed by another try from David Hoffmann. Set piece was working well, Dom and David Brown-Bennett were solid in the scrum and Charlie GM stole the majority of the Chipstead lineout ball.

Continued pressure led to more Chipstead infringements and good hands from Crouchy to Sparky to Kitan who scored in the corner to extend Trinity’s lead. Chipstead bounced back and scored a deserved try following a catch and drive on the Trinity line despite some heroic defence. Callum True produced an excellent carry from the kick off beating a number of tacklers to take the play into the Chipstead half, Ed Duffy playing at 15 counter-attacked well and after a loose kick picked up the ball around half-way and ran through the Chipstead defenders to score under the posts and the ref blew for full time.

Overall an excellent display of attacking rugby to extend Trinity’s 100% record – Charlie GM deservedly was chosen as MoM by the oppo after an impressive display, DoD could have gone to several players, Sparky for a horrific attempted volley into touch, Kitan Taiwo diving for a try to realise it was the 5 metre line and not the try line, but the award goes to Ed Duffy who dropped the ball whilst in the action of scoring a try (we’ll let him off as he scored his try in the next play).

Trinity celebrated into the night at LMA with the 1s also winning to maintain a 1s and 2s 100% record – a Halloween themed social organised by Ben V followed and perhaps a few sore heads the next morning.

Saturday 26th October 2024
Trinity RFC A XV 45 – 5 Chipstead 2nd XV
Try Scorers – Alex Scott x2, Kitan Taiwo x2, Zou Mihramane, Ed Duffy, David Hoffmann
Cons – Jack Greenwood x5
Squad – Dom Plumb, Jason Hoffman, David Hoffman, Ben Donovan, Charlie GM, Zou Mihramane, Alex Scott, Seb Robertson, Jack Greenwood (c), Callum True, Dan Crouch, Mark Macaskill, Dave Stanton, Kitan Taiwo, Ed Duffy, David Brown-Bennett

Match Report Mark Macaskill
Man of the Match -Charlie Geary-Merrett
Match Photos – PETE FILEWOODS FLICKR PAGE