Tottonians 55 Guildford 28 – Report
Tottonians made it five wins from five and remain clear at the top of the Regional 2 South Central table with an eight-try showpiece against bottom of the table Guildford at Water Lane.
TOTTONIANS 55 GUILDFORD 28
Water Lane, Totton
Saturday 28th September 2024
Regional 2 South Central – match 5
The players were led out by three major milestone achievers as scrum-half Harry Dolbear, centre Josh Andrews and second row Charlie Quinn all marked their 200th, 100th and 50th 1st XV league appearances respectively.
And the celebratory air remained throughout the match as both sides were full of endeavour, the visitors belying their winless position at the foot of the league ladder by playing some attractive rugby.
However, the game was effectively over before half-time as Tottonians took their opportunies to seal the bonus point before the break and then added a further four tries in a fine second half, that was only spoiled by their own errors gift-wrapping a deserved try bonus point for the Surrey side.
Totts hit the front after just seven minutes when from a line out catch on the 22 from the returning Quinn, playing his first game of the season, the pack drive Guildford all the way to their line and it was Cam Flint who benefited at the back to open the scoring – Robbie Searle adding the extras and then a further penalty ten minutes later.
Guildford attempted to hit back but were well marshaled by the Totts defence and when Harry Dolbear intercepted a passing move, Tom Tully received the pass, chipped ahead and won the boot race to the line for their second, Searle again adding the conversion.
The visitors did hit back when a stray Searle pass was collected and they zipped under the posts to get themselves on the board but it was only a short lived reprive when Tom Gregory ran a full 25 yards, handing off Guildford defenders to score under the posts just a couple of minutes later.
A rampant home side ensured the bonus point was bagged just moments later when, from the restart, Tully’s superb run, weaving his way through released Quinn who was held up but from the resumption, good hands at great speed set up the captain Liam Murphy to pile over for a 29-7 interval lead.
It did not take long for Totts to resume the scoring when Scott Rogers, on as a half-time replacement, found some space and worked his way left and right, finding Dolbear on his left shoulder to cross under the posts, Searle converting.
However, the visitors, who cannot be faulted for their hard work and endeavour, responded almost immediately with their second try but when winger Leo Tongue outgunned their defence having been put in by an exusite pass from the returning Rich O’Donnell for the sixth try of the afternoon, you would have thought the game was done.
For Guildford came again, posting a converted try as the sides played tit-for-tat in the scoring stakes, only to be pegged back again after some silky hands from the hosts put in replacement Kevin Raqio under the posts – Searle converting again – and then the visitors took a well-deserved bonus point for their fourth try, although Totts had rather presented three of them.
The final score came when winger George Hixon took full advantage of a Guildford spill in defence after Quinn and Flint recycled the ball nicely, Tongue also being involved and offloading to his colleague out wide. Searle added his sixth conversion to seal the comfortable win as Totts surpassed 50 points for the first time since beating Wimborne 55-19 in October 2023 – but also, for the fourth game running, conceded over 25 – something that hasn’t happened since February/March 2019.
Five games, five wins, five bonus points – can’t ask for more than that!
Hear what coach Phil Osman and 200-cap man Harry Dolbear had to say at full-time in our exclusive post match video.
