THERE was all to play for in this fixture at Croham Road last Saturday as the teams were only two places apart in the league.
And the early exchanges left few people doubting the final result. Whitgiftians were totally dominant and opened the scoring with a straightforward penalty from scrum-half Ollie England.
Fly-half Andy Marshall then scored twice, and full-back Rob Butcher crossed the line to round off a fine break in the centre by Quintin Keanie.
The second half started in a similar vein, and within minutes, Butcher had crossed the line for his second try, converted by Ollie England. With the score standing at 29-0, Whitgiftians relaxed and Freemen's, chasing a huge deficit, seized every opportunity that came their way. Within minutes, they had scored two tries from short-range raids.
To OW's disbelief, Freemen's then put together a good spell of possession, handling and running that resulted in a further two tries, reducing the gap to only three points.
A penalty that would have levelled the scores was missed, and this brought the Whitgiftians back to life. After a splendid rolling maul, OW's Miles Daly crossed the line.
Freemen's gained possession again from the restart and tore down the field to out-flank a seemingly non-existent Whitgiftian defence. A successful conversion closed the gap to a single point – and the home side was mightily relieved to hear the referee's final whistle.
