Pilgrims Match Report

Pilgrims 19

Old Reigatians 14

The Pilgrims welcomed the leagues bottom club old Reigatians to the MTG on Saturday, but although they were without a win in 16 league outings, their recent results suggest it won’t stay that way for long.
That was evidenced from the first whistle as they had the advantage of the slope and looked intent on running the ball at every opportunity. The pilgrims, having been inconsistent in recent games themselves, aided the visitors by looking to force offloads, missing kicks to touch and chatting back to the official. This coupled with Old Reigatians early dominance in the scrum put the pilgrims on the back foot and they soon found themselves a try down after Old Reigatians turned their possession in to 7 deserved points. The pilgrims spoke before hand about playing to their strengths and looking to move the ball wide and on the few occasions they did this it was no surprise to see Old R’s struggle to contain them, Campbell being narrowly denied in the corner before eventually the pilgrims found their way to the line with the ball moved wide effectively to even the score at 7-7.
A further score was added on the stroke of half time to give the pilgrims a narrow 12-7 lead.
The second half was a continuation of the first with the pilgrims disrupting their own rhythm by consistently failing to find touch from penalties, back chatting the referee and keeping the ball tight rather than playing expansively which has brought them 2 scores.
Both sides were muttering unnecessarily to the referee and he took a dim view of this- first sending wing Fin Mason-Myers and his opposite man to the bin a scuffle after the whistle, before scrum half Valladares was also yellow carded for back chat.
Old R’s took advantage to score their second and take the lead midway through the 2nd half and give the pilgrims a firm warning they needed to up their game. The forwards dug deep and started winning the collisions with more intent led in particular by McCormack and Dengate with the latter going on a powerful 40 meter run to the line that sore the pilgrims restore their lead, 19-14.
Old R’a tried to rally and showed they are not out of place at this level, but the pilgrims held firm to claim an important victory. Credit to Old Reigatians who will not remain winless if they continue to play with the same endeavour.