Cranleigh RFC lose out to Old Paulines

The game was played on a near-perfect pitch even with the rain that fell last week.

Cranleigh from the start attacked and was in full control in most areas in the first 15 minutes. Paulines were however first to score points with a penalty 25 yards out in a central position duly converted. Cranleigh continued to attack with Matt Dandy punching holes in the Paulines' defence and was awarded a central penalty for offside duly converted.

Paulines then showed they could put some decent pressure on Cranleigh and eventually broke through to score under the posts after some poor defensive tackling. Duly converted score 10-3. Scrums were even  but Cranleigh lineouts did not work as well as last week.

On 30 minutes Cranleigh drove to Paulines' line and Jake Tetley finished off a decent maul by the Cranleigh scrum. The conversion was missed by inches from Ryan Corrigan. The referee was very keen on penalizing high tackles and awarded penalties to both sides which were duly converted, another for Cranleigh being offside left the score at halftime 18-13 to Paulines.

Cranleigh started the second half like the first half on the attack, but gave away yet another penalty, for handling in the ground. Cranleigh kept Paulines in their half for the majority of the second half and the pressure was rewarded with a try by Will Davies after again a decent maul, which was converted by Harry Crabtree.

With the score at 21-20, there was some decent optimism that Cranleigh could deliver a victory but within 2 minutes  Paulines put together the best move of the game and with the help of two missed first-time tackles scored a try by their excellent left wing. Two  Paulines were yellow-carded in the last 15 minutes, one for a dangerous high tackle around the neck. Cranleigh were unable to take advantage even though they were in the Paulines half and making progress. 

The last 10 minutes were poor to watch for the Cranleigh spectators, to see four of their lineouts being lost and momentum draining away. The scRums became poor and disjointed.

Cranleigh deserved better for all the possession they had, especially in the second half. Effort was again exceptional but we saw again some of the basics not being delivered.