Old Walcountians brought a run of successive league defeats to an end on Saturday when they came from behind to beat a physical Cranleigh 15-10 at Alfold Crossways.

Once again, the Counts were missing several regular players who were in New Zealand for the World Cup.

Positional changes saw Matt Houghton, a hooker, move to his old position in the back row and Fred South, normally a fly-half, move to centre.

But Walcountians got off to a quick start and after six minutes, South, who with fellow centre Justin Nicholas, had been finding holes in the Cranleigh defence, put full-back Ollie Beales away on the right flank to touch down for a try.

The early score was invaluable as Walcountians continued to harass the home side, with lock Simon Fowler and flankers Matt Houghton and Jack South getting through an immense amount of work.

Four minutes later, the Counts nearly added a further score when Justin Nicholas was bundled into touch as he went for the line.

The heavyweight Cranleigh pack did not start to make an impression until just before the break but, with five minutes of stoppage time added, they nudged forward from a scrum on the Walcountians five metre line and their No 8 got the touch for the try that levelled the scores.

Walcountians received a setback in the second half when winger Chris Drinkwater had to leave the field with a foot injury, and received a let-off when a Cranleigh penalty rebounded off the post in the 17th minute.

The game looked over for the Counts when Cranleigh’s left winger crossed for a try with 11 minutes to go following a blind-side move from a scrum.

However, sheer enterprise and guts saw Walcountians pull off victory in the final 10 minutes of the game as they scored two tries to stun the home side.

The first came after 33 minutes when Simon Fowler backed up his threequarters and bundled his way over the line after taking a pass.

The winning score fell to replacement winger Simon Manning who, four minutes later, took an inside pass and straightened up to outpace Cranleigh defenders in a race for the line.

Walcountians have a one-week break from the League while the opening round of the RFU Junior Vase is played.

They return to action in two weeks time when they take on London South Africa. Kick-off at Clock House is at 3pm on 22 October.