WARLINGHAM VETS 19-57 TRINITY VETS

Trinity Vets visited local rivals Warlingham for their first run out of the season lead by Dan Crouch. Conditions were good, despite some early rain the pitch was firm and the floodlights were working. Trinity welcomed debuts for a few players, including new senior coach Naani Osmond at scrum half, Luke Halliford in the backrow and loanees Chey Dupe & Adam Stollery, combined with a return of Matt Farlow after a brief 10-year break.

Trinity got into their stride early, attacking with pace and accuracy, which resulted in Luke Halliford crossing in the left corner after a strong carry, followed by a fine conversion from Crouch. Repeated infringements from the away side resulted in Warlingham spending time in the 22 however the Trinity defence held firm after some stoic tackling. Warlingham struck back with a try from their fly half who collected a chip & chased to score under the posts, 7-7. Trinity fired straight back with some good interplay ending in Crouch feeding Macaskill running a short line to score the 2nd try, 14-7. The lineout was working well, Tim Jupp hitting his jumpers regularly with Matt Higgins, Neal Leather and George Daniels as the go-to options – from this solid platform Trinity produced a score from Dave Stanton who looked threatening at 13, 21-7. More setpiece dominance at the scrum with Chey Dupe and Dom Plumb using their guile and experience to get the upperhand, scrum on halfway with Daniels feeding Osmond who hit Macaskill to return the pass for Osmond to run in a fine score. 26-7. Halliford scored his second try to finish the first half with Trinity 33-7 ahead.

In the half time huddle the group talked about composure and game management, playing up the slope in the 2nd half would be a challenge – with a squad of 17 some of the old legs might tire and Warlingham seemed to have a squad of 30+. Trinity welcomed Matt Austin into the action and Warlingham kicked off the 2nd half.

The game plan worked well with Warlingham conceding penalties early on to enable Crouch to kick to touch and Trinity rely on their effective lineout. 3 quick tries came from some good interplay and breakdown work, Bryn Hodges crossing for a deserved score, Halliford finishing in the corner for his hattrick and Farlow scoring for a popular try. This took the game away from Warlingham who, to their credit, kept looking to play and were able to score a bullish try after sustained pressure on the Trinity line. The final away score came from Leather who ran in a try after some good link play from Crouch and Macaskill. Warlingham scored a late consolation try to finish the game 57-19 to Trinity.

Overall a quality performance from the Vets who, with a depleted squad, played an attractive brand of rugby looking to play and scoring 9 tries.

MoM – Luke Halliford – hattrick and a fine bulldozing performance on debut, rightly chosen by Warlingham as MoM
DoD – Matt Farlow – due to a lack of backs Matt was playing at full back in the first half where he spent most of the game at the bottom of each breakdown, true to his openside instincts

Friday 12th September 2025
Trinity Vets 57-19 Warlingham Vets
Try Scorers – Luke Halliford x3, Mark Macaskill, Naani Osmond, Bryn Hodges, Neal Leather, Dave Stanton, Matt Farlow
Cons – Dan Crouch x7
Squad – Chey Dupe, Tim Jupp, Dom Plumb, Neal Leather, Matt Higgins, Luke Halliford, Bryn Hodges, George Daniels, Naani Osmond, Dan Crouch (c), Adam Stollery, Matt Farlow, Mark Macaskill, Jon Eynon, Dave Stanton, Matt Austin, Mark Dean