London Two South West
Tadley Tigers 22 Warlingham 56
FULL-BACK Joe McEvoy's 21 points were key as Warlingham ran out 56-22 winners at Tadley.
It was the second win of the season for Warlingham, and head coach Ben Stobart believes it was the result of hard-work put in on the training pitch.
"We stuck to our game plan and it worked well," he said. "We also defended well on our line which was the result of hard work in our training sessions."
Experiencing their first year in this league, Tadley are experiencing the perverse difficulties of achieving promotion and are currently languishing one place off the bottom of the table. They were drubbed by a rejuvenated Warlingham side keen to avenge the defeat they suffered the previous league week.
Despite unavailabilities, Warlingham played their best rugby thus far and put seven tries on the hapless Berkshire club.
On their first ever visit to Tadley, Warlingham went behind after their hosts kicked a penalty but the metronomic boot of Warlingham full-back McEvoy put the visitors ahead with two penalties of his own.
Once settled, Warlingham's game plan clicked into place and they scored four workmanlike tries before half-time and secured the bonus points. Former captain Zack King drove 20 metres to score the first. Scrum half James Agate took a well timed pass from No 8 Mike Fair, chipped and chased and jinxed past the defence for the second, closely followed by a forty metre express-train run from winger Jack Atkinson. Then captain Jon Osborne intercepted a wayward pass and saw off his opposite number for the fourth try - all converted by McEvoy. Tadley gained an opportunist try when a stray pass popped into their wingers hands for him to score. This completed the first half try-fest.
After the turn round Warlingham continued the pressure. Prop Lewis Unsworth and lock Neil Robson were the epitome of a solid defence and nothing got past them, especially when Tadley were camped on the Warlingham line for long periods of time.
Centre Brad Saffery broke away and through the Tadley defence to give Luke Delderfield a scoring pass. Not to be outdone Tadley added their second try but the bulky prop Kieran Scutt shrugged off tackles and put Atkinson in for his second try. The home side then took advantage in Warlingham lack of focus and scored their third try but the dependable McEvoy added a fourth penalty bringing his personal total to 21 points. The final try came from an Agate forty metre dash which well and truly nailed the result.
Next Saturday Warlingham host unbeaten league leaders London Cornish at their Hamsey Green home.
Warlingham: McEvoy, Atkinson, A Skinner, Saffery, Osborne, Beaven, Agate, Scutt, Unsworth, Abou-Zeid, L Delderfield, Robson, Dowling, King, Fair, Townsend, Thornton, Maynard
Other Results: Warlingham 2nd XV won-38-v- 6 Weybridge Vandals, 3rd XV won 10 - 7pts -v- Battersea Ironsides; 4th XV Lost 10-52 -v- HSBC 1st XV
