WEYBRIDGE VANDALS 56-21 TRINITY

Trinity 1st XV travelled to Weybridge Vandals for their 5th league game of the season. Due to the ever growing injury list the team sheet included the 33rd different name already this season!

The game was not even 2 minutes old when following a Weybridge lineout in the Trinity 22, Weybridge broke from the back of the resulting maul to burst through the Trinity defence unchallenged.

This seemed to spark Trinity in to life and a lot of the play for the next 10 minutes was in the Weybridge half however it was Weybridge who got the second try of the game following a flowing backs move that found the gap in the Trinity defence with a well-timed inside pass.

Again Trinity took the game back to Weybridge and on18 minutes were eventually rewarded with some points on the board for their efforts. Following a line out on the Weybridge 22, Alex Scott broke from the back of the maul, his strong vary put Weybridge on the back foot laying the platform for James Hammond to find Jack Greenwood who sent Ty Williams in under the post finishing off a well-planned backs move.

Trinity had a number of opportunities to add to their 7 points during the rest of the half but unfortunately failed to capitalise on these. The best two chances came from grubber kicks. First was from the boot of Ben Telfer as he dinked the ball through to the on-rushing Williams however it just rolled out dead before Williams was able to dive on it. The second good chance was from a less likely source as flanker Olly Hubbard put in a superb long kick however the Weybridge cover defence just beat flying winger Max Maynard to ground the ball as in bounced over the try line.

Weybridge however did manage to add three further tries before half time to bring the score to 35-7. The first of these was a simple run in with an extra man out wide, the 2nd came from a tap penalty 5 meters out from the Trinity try line and the 3rd was from a driving maul off of a line out. Trinity’s cause was not helped by losing James Hammond to the bin for “deliberately” killing the ball following a high tackle.

The second half started in the same way as the first half, with an early try to Weybridge! Trinity then got their second yellow card of the game when George Daniels was penalised for coming round the side of a maul. However Trinity soon had their second try of the match when Marc McEvilly burst through the Weybridge line and gave a perfectly timed off load to his centre partner, Andrew Dean, to stroll in for the score.

Some more positive play followed from Trinity but again it was Weybridge that pounced on a Trinity error for the next try as the Weybridge No 7 (who happened to be the cousin of former Mids player Richard Gooch) gathered a lose ball to run through from the half line handing off a couple of players on his way!

The introduction of Zouhair Mihramane seemed to galvanise Trinity. Mihramane was straight into the action with two perfectly executed turn overs. Trinity were fired up and were determined to get something from this game and were now looking to get 4 tries for a losing bonus point. They got their third try following a well taken lineout by Ben Vaillant and when the ball was passed down the line Dean was this time able to put McEvilly through for try under the sticks. With the clock against them Greenwood quickly dropped kicked the conversion.

Club stalwart and current AXV captain Tom Caplin came on for his first team debut 13 years after his AXV debut as the injured Williams made way. Trinity continued to attack and gain that 4th try however it was not to be there day and Weybridge did add a final try to the score late on to give a full time result of 56-21.

Match report by Russell Jones.

Tribe Player of the Match: MARC McEVILLY

Highlights from the game can be seeing via our VEO link https://app.veo.co/matches/20231014-weybridge-vandels-v-trinity-a4bfc3a5/