Gannets breeze past Anchorians

A windy day (did you see what I did with the title?) on the banana pitch greeted the teams in what was the first of this seasons reverse fixtures.Could the mighty Gannets replicate their away performance? Well read on and you shall find out..

Whilst the Anchorians lined up with pretty much the same side as the last meeting,the G's,as usual were a changed side.Russ Turley stepped in for big H (poached by the 3's) for what was only his third game in the front row,Sam came into the second row and after seemingly an eternity, the Swansea City centre pairing of Steve Wootton and Matt Clarke were back in tandem.

As with the previous fixture,Gillingham exerted the early pressure spending the early stages of the game inside the G's 22.However despite a series of lineouts and scrums,they couldn't trouble the imaginary scoreboard.The G's reply to this was swift and effective.Excellent driving from the forwards allowed the ball to be released to the backs just inside their own half.Powerful running from both centres made ground into the Gills 22 where Gary Curran,revitalised after spending 5 weeks playing Abanazar in the local panto,burst through the despairing tackles of the defence to score a try which Ben converted.

The Gannets kept the pressure on from the restart to work their way back inside the Gills 5 on three occasions,two ending in being penalised and one ending in a turnover and ball being kicked away.Undeterred,they pressed on on and were rewarded with Paddys second try of the game following yet another beserking run.

Excellent defence and hard running and tackling from the G's three quarters especially kept the visitors at bay for a half time score of 12-0.

The Gannets picked up right where they left off in the first:camped inside the Anchorians half and they were duly rewarded when Pete Stone showed an excellent turn of pace to score in the corner.The angle of the conversion was tough enough,but with the wind playing silly buggars,he was excused from missing the resulting conversion and a penalty soon after which was strangely charged down on the first attempt.The ref,rightly gave the inexperienced Gills player the benefit of the doubt but the retake was also missed.

The Anchorians then made their only sortie of the second period inside the home five metre line where the ball was stripped by Martin Riley and swiftly drove back into their own half.A great run down the line from Vid followed by a superb offload in the tackle to Matt Abbott who showed his,ahem,'predatory instincts' by going over to score in the corner.

Unfortunately,the game then petered out with a series of scrums,penalties and some generally over fussy officiating and the final whistle soon sounded for a 22-0 win for the Gannets.

An excellent win for the G's but the margin of victory deserved to be wider given the territorial domination of the home side,but a shutout win is nothing to be sniffed at especially against a side that although weren't able to trouble the scoreboard,were tenacious in defence.

With his two tries and several tackle bursting runs,it's once again hard to look past Gary Curran as man of the match to prove the old saying true...Guinness really does give you strength.

On the injury front,Ian Shuttlewood suffered a scratch to his forehead but this is believed to have been caused by hitting himself with the flag whilst running touch and he is rated as 70/30 for next week.

Next week your favourite social rugby team are away at Tonbridge Judds so until next time...