Was the red card shown to Dorking after 27 minutes the underlying reason for a good away win or was it a second solid performance across all units of the Combe team? Probably one of those hypothetical questions that can't be truly answered but the Combe support that travelled round the M25 would likely plump for the latter reason.

The visitors started on the front foot and had two very good early attempts on the Dorking line thwarted; the first when the referee spotted some crossing in the build up and the second when Combe were pinged for holding on in the tackle short of the try line. The Red and Whites started to fire some shots of their own and took the lead after 15 minutes when captain and centre Matt Noble chased down his through kick from inside the Combe half to win the race for the touchdown. Noble then slotted the kick himself to make it 7-0 for Dorking.

Combe levelled 5 minutes later. The move was started by full back KK Orelaja who ran powerfully down the right. Dave Pohlen provided the support and in turn fed outside centre Sam Rhodes for a fine score. Jacob Buckley kicked the conversion.

Dorking went down to 14 men after a dangerous tackle from Jasper King who had up till then been a strong presence in the Dorking line out. Combe quickly took advantage of a disrupted home pack to win a scrum against the head and Matt Harrison went in for the try when scrum half Buckley chose a blind side option to wrong foot the defence. Buckley kicked the conversion to make it 7-14.

35 minutes had passed when WPRFC extended the advantage to 12 points when captain Nick Cook scored an unconverted try following a spell of Combe pressure in the home 22. 7-19 at the half time whistle.

The Red and Whites now had the advantage of the slope but Combe had that man advantage and ultimately it was the latter that probably proved decisive. The visitors were scoreless in the second period and the team effort in defence more than made up for the lack of attacking flashes. Dorking stuck at the task in front of them but were unable to breach the Combe line until the 74th minute despite the visitors being down to 14 men themselves when losing a player for a tackle off the ball.

That score came from a Combe error when trying to play open Rugby when safety first was the order of the day. Again the ball was hacked through and this time Noble fed his fellow centre Ryan Jeffrey for the try. The kick was narrowly missed which meant Dorking needed two scores for the win.

The last 15 minutes were a truly tense affair with the home side pressing hard for the win. The Combe defence proved resolute and the relief among both the team and the support was palpable when the referee blew for a Dorking infringement at the breakdown and the ball launched off the field by Combe for the end of the game.

It would be very difficult to single out any Combe player as this was truly a team effort and a sense of strength in unity is becoming more evident as the season progresses. More of the same is what the Combe support will be looking for when the Goddington Dene side meet Tring this Saturday.