With the games played in sub tropical conditions in Sevenoaks the outcome was always likely to be decided by fitness and attitude of which this G’s side is beginning to demonstrate buckets of.
The game kicked off at a fair pace with a much changed G’s backline soon into the swing of things. With their fifth scrum half in as many games continuity is always an issue but Edmeds soon fitted in and was proving a threat to the opposition defenders. With the backs resources thinly stretched though the last thing that G’s wanted was an early injury but a hamstring pull to the robust Coates necessitated an appearance of 3rd XV captain Stu Harrington onto the wing.
Soon after the reorganisation the Sevenoaks scrum half on another dummy throwing break found some space to put his winger away down the left hand flank for an unconverted try. G’s responded well with a period of sustained pressure and with the benefits of dominating the line out were able to play the touchlines and put pressure on Sevenoaks.
A penalty from Taylor was nudged deep into the Sevenoaks 22 and a good catch and driver set up. After a series of drives the ball was spilled which was how the half was going for the G’s with minor errors spoiling good passages of play. With some first up tackles being missed Sevenoaks were allowed more of the play than they should have been but there were enough good things about the G’s performance for them to remain positive.
Suddenly at the end of the half it all came together with some robust drives from the forward where Ford and Heggs were imposing themselves physically on the Sevenoaks pack with some huge hits. This provided clean ball for the backs where the mercurial Grey released Saunders and Taylor deep into the Sevenoaks half. Quickly recycled ball through some more quick hands allowed the omni-present McKee to run in under the posts. With Taylor adding the conversion G’s turned around 7-5 to the good.
The first part of the second half turned into one of those periods of play where nothing was seeming to go right. Sevenoaks scored a converted try following some more missed tackles and added a conversion to begin to take the game away from Gravesend. A Taylor penalty closed the gap but something was needed from the side if anything was going to be gained from the gain. Gravesend 2’s however are not short of team spirit or commitment and with Gray and McKee providing the leadership and galvanising the team they began to turn the game around.
Henry was dominating the line outs and with Day and Walpole getting the upper hand in the scrummaging and also providing some weighty ball carrying G’s began to get some go forward. Following another impressive line out take by Henry the forwards set up a drive going deep into the Sevenoaks 22, good leg drive and a well organised driving maul resulted in Henry plunging over for an unconverted try.
This inspired the G’s side and back they came from the kick off, Proctor broke the line and with Brown in support carrying the ball well G’s were on the move. Sevenoaks offended and the penalty was kicked into the 22 for the line out. The result was exactly the same as the previous line out with a good catch and a well organised driving maul resulted in Henry going over for his second try. Taylor provided the extras to take G’s 22-15 in front.
With confidence high and time running out G’s really took the game to the opposition, Saunders made a break, McKee took on a number of Sevenoaks defenders and was eventually hauled down in the opposing 22, the forwards recycled the ball went and Edmeds took the ball left for the awaiting backs. Proctor found himself in space with Harrington coming up at speed on the wing; with the option of either going himself through two defenders or backing his winger he straightened the line and scored himself. Taylor with the last kick of the match added the extras to give the G’s a 29-15 win.
Man of the match for Gravesend was McKee
Team: Taylor, George, Coates (Harrington), Saunders, Proctor, Grey, Edmeds, Day, McKee, Walpole (Rees), Heggs, Henry, Brown, Pearce (Painter), Ford
Scorers: Henry 2 tries, McKee 1 try, Proctor 1 try, Taylor 3 conversions 1 Penalty
