Tenacious D is the key for the Gees

Ridiculously heavy traffic through the post apocalyptic nightmare that is Strood meant that your favourite social rugby team arrived late in Rochester,thus having to abandon their patented well organised warm up in favour of a quick limber up in the wind and rain.
Thankfully,the kit man,Mayhem,had thoughtfully decided to wash but not dry the shirts meaning the Gannets were instantly acclimatised to the outside conditions.
After a couple of weeks of thumb twiddling after their superb display against them next door,the Gannets were keen to get back underway and this was reflected in the team selection with pretty much the same 15 taking the field.The only exceptions being Ethan White coming into the front row and Craig Duvana rocking up after the Swans were blown out by Lordswood after arriving at the ground.

The strong crossfield wind proved a problem right from the opening kickoff with it being dropped by the Gees and immediately they were under pressure on their own 22.After an evenly contested scrum,Medway tried moving the ball throught their big man/little man centres only to be met by stiff resistance from the Gannets backs.Clearly some of John Forbes Wednesday night training session had been taken in and put into practice.

Several Medway phases were repelled before the Gannets burst into life.Once again,Paddy found himself at the back of the driving maul and made a burst for the line.With the home defence at sixes and sevens Percy found himself bearing down on the line.As has been remarked upon before,if you try and tackle him high,you're going to get flattened as the Medway hooker found out to his cost as Percy ran through him en route to a 0-5 Gannets lead.Ben kept his composure in the swirling wind and slotted the conversion.

It was deja vu from the resulting kickoff with the Gannets unable to field the ball and the home team trying to make headway towards the visitors line.Again,the defence was sound and the pack were also getting the upper hand in the scrums with Ethan leading the way.The Gees made their way downfield where Mitch Dorsett barged his way over the line for the Gees second score which again,was expertly converted by Ben.

A Ben Baker penalty put the visitors 0-17 to the good before Medway finally breached the Gees defence with the fullback taking advantage of a slip to make his way unchallenged to the corner in what was one of the few occasions he actually ran in a north-south as opposed to east-west direction.

With a 5-17 halftime lead the Gees were by no means resting on their laurels as the bigger,younger Medway pack now had the wind and the slope in their favour and they took immediate advantage,pinning the Gannets back inside their own 22 for the early part of the second half.Once again,the visitors resistance was stiff with an excellent defensive line keeping out attacks from both forwards and backs.Matt 'the predator' Abbott proving himself a thorn in Medways side with his effective ankle wrapping technique stopping the big runners on many an occasion.With the wind making kicking a nightmare,as proved by Martin Taylors epic 'box kick',it was down to the Gees to run their way out of their own 22,a task which was gleefully accepted by Paddy and Sarge,who linked up with the backs to take the Gees back down towards the home try line where Martin Taylor crashed over the line for a try which not even Leigh Halfpenny could have converted.But Leigh was in Paris so Ben took the kick and he also missed so the score remained at 5-22.

A knee injury to Ben meant a reshuffle with Ian Shuttlewood taking over at 10 and Craig Duvana coming onto the wing after a ten minute delay whilst he squeezed into an extra small shirt) and it didn't take Craig long to make his presence felt as he took at least 5 Medway defenders with him as he burst down the line into the 22.

This proved to be the last significant action in the game and the ref brought the game to a close for a thoroughly well deserved Gees win.

It would be impossible to single out any particular player but instead the immense Gees defence should be given all the plaudits.A solid defensive line was in evidence throughout the match,with effective if not spectacular tackling the trademark.This must have been especially disheartening for a Medway team,many of which were due to play the Gees threes before cancelling for the second time this season...did this make the victory sweeter? Hell yeah!

Next week it's back upto Rochester to take on the Willies.Will we make the mistake of travelling through the town of the living dead otherwise known as Strood? Hell No!

That's all from the housewives favourites for now so until next time..