Gravesend get off to a flying start!!!

The added conversion giving the home side a confidence-boosting 7-0 lead in the early stages. Both teams looked sharp from the first whistle, but it was Gravesend making fewer mistakes to begin with. Beckenham soon turned that around, though, and were awarded a penalty which they duly took the three points from. 7-3 to Gravesend with 22 minutes gone.

Possession mostly belonged to Gravesend and Rhys Betts took the opportunity of another penalty to the home side to show off his long range skills and slot the ball through the posts to extend the lead again to 10-3.

Beckenham found their reply just a few minutes later and got the score back to within one try at 10-6. By this point, both sides were making mistakes and there were some questionable decisions being made, but there was equally strong defence from both teams, meaning possession was changing hands regularly but play was mainly in the middle of the pitch. Zac Lewis was sent to the sin bin on the stroke of half time, giving Beckenham the opportunity to narrow the gap to just one point, with Gravesend leading 10-9 at the break.

The second half started with a nasty-looking injury to Aaron Rayner but Gravesend were, again, looking the stronger side. That’s not to say they were making things easy for themselves, with a string of penalties going against them. Luckily, Beckenham struggled to capitalise on that and a series of kicks got Gravesend into a much better territorial position. Terry Papworth was driven over the try line to give the hosts a bit of breathing space on the score board. Sadly, the wind took hold of the conversion and it was blown across the front of the posts. With 15-9 showing on the scoreboard, Gravesend were in a good position going in to the last quarter.

Even when possession was given away, Gravesend fought hard to regain it and their efforts were paying off with the hosts pushing their opposition back every time. A penalty to extend the lead took the score out to 18-9, meaning Beckenham were going to need to score two tries in the last few minutes to take the win.

A yellow card to one of their second row players made this even more unlikely and, whilst Beckenham did finish with a flourish and one last penalty, the final score was a very well deserved 18-12 win to Gravesend.

Match Report Written by Fran Holmes