WILL CROW admitted he was "on top of the world" after helping Surrey to their County Championship Shield victory at Twickenham on Sunday.
Surrey, who included 14 Dorking players in the squad, and was led by Dorking director of rugby Richie Andrews, retained their crown by beating Cumbria 21-16 at the home of English rugby.
It was by no means a classic, but Surrey ground out the victory, and it meant everything to scrum-half Crow.
He said: "That's ecstasy for you, I'm on top of the world, that was brilliant."
It probably meant a little bit more to the 22-year-old as well, considering he was not part of the squad that romped to a 43-12 victory over Leicestershire in 2012.
"I was at university last year and had an injured shoulder and I was gutted to miss out, especially with all the boys coming here and winning it, so it was good to be involved this year," he said.
The clash was something of a drab affair in the first half with Surrey leading 10-6 at the break. But the introduction of Crow livened matters up and he was delighted to prove his worth.
He added: "The first half flew by but nothing really happened and we got a bit of a rollicking at half-time which we needed and Richie told me to try and make a difference and do something. I ran with the ball, which is what I like doing and I made a difference.
"You're sitting there [on the bench] and it's completely out of your hands and when you get on you want to do something, it was great to be involved and winning, nothing tops it, that's brilliant."
Crow also admitted victory at Twickenham did banish a few of the demons of Dorking's disastrous end to the league season, with the Red & Whites missing out on the National League Three London title by one point and then losing the promotion play-off at Exmouth, by a point, with the last play of the game.
Crow added: "With ten minutes to go we were up by two points and Ryan Jeffery came over and said 'it's a bit like Exmouth, this' and I said 'it scarily is', but luckily it didn't go the same way.
"That takes Exmouth out of the pipes, definitely, it's a positive end to the season for us now.
"We've got to look at the positives of Exmouth and that is that we get to play in this next year, it's a massive opportunity to come back and defend our title. I'm really looking forward to that."
