Architects of their own downfall

Gravesend paid their annual visit to Goddington Dene, and once again came away second best by a huge margin on the scoreboard, but not in the playing on the park.
With so many points given away, by senior player errors, you could be forgiven for missing the better aspects of the play by Gss, for without the given away passes, the score could quite easily have been 25-18, or the result may have gone the other way.
A truly competitive game from the outset, and if Gss had a more clinical finish they could well have been over the whitewash on several occasions in the first quarter.
An ambitious long range penalty chance went wide after just two minutes and was matched by one for Combe on fifteen, but the home XV went ahead on seventeen minutes when James Cameron slotted between the posts for 3-0.
The Gravesend pack was providing plenty of ball, and were recycling most at the breakdown and it was just reward for their efforts when Jamie Forsyth drove over wide on the right. The kick went across the face of the posts, but Gss led 3-5 after twenty-one minutes.
As is often the case, one score follows another, and despite loud audible warnings from the referee for Gss to retire behind the back foot, continued infringement led to a penalty in front of the posts, Cameron duly obliged to put Combe back in front.
Good line-out work and set piece ball ensured ample supply of ball, but an error strewn performance allowed the home XV to pounce on chances that were of Gss making.
Three tries, two of which were from slack play as they were from interceptions for run in points, all converted, answered by a superb drop goal and a penalty from the boot of Jason Thomasen-Hicks, gave Combe a 27-11 advantage at the break.
This score-line did not reflect the efforts being made in gaining a supply of good ball that should have been made more of.
Two more converted tries by the end of the third quarter, yet again from unforced errors on the part of Gss players, as they pressed forward for a score of their own, saw the deficit climb to 41-11.
To their credit, Gss heads didn’t drop and they plugged on keeping to their task. Some good periods of play marred by the errors, but a chink of brightness came when replacement lock, Darius Vaitkevicius finish of a forward’s passing move to score by the uprights giving replacement wing, Stephen McNamara the opportunity to convert which he did, for 41-18.
Even at this point in the game, Gss were playing to get back into the game and were attacking the Combe line, but finding no way through.
A whistle happy referee blew twenty-four times for penalties throughout the game, with Gss edging the lion’s share of these, and the indiscipline inside their own twenty-two, cost Gss another twelve points in the last five minutes, in a game that was marred by errors, and yellow cards for both teams.
Next week Gss are at home to Chichester in a must win encounter for both teams as they occupy two of the bottom four spots in the National 3 league table.