G's pip their visitors

G’s U14s got their first win under their belt on a very showery Sunday morning at the Rectory Field. With the last two fixture against Tunbridge Wells falling foul to the weather it didn’t look great with the rain pouring down in early morning, however, by the time the boys took to the field the sun was out and we were set for a good morning of rugby.

G’s made a great start to the game and right from the off the returning and rampant Levon was soon making big inroads in to the Tunbridge forwards. On more that one occasion it looked like we had made the breakthrough only to be stopped by some last ditch tackling. The forwards were taking the game by the scruff of the neck and giving the backs good ball to play with. Some excellent rucking and good driving mauls, not to mention numerous steals at the front of the line by Woodbine, gave us long spells in the opposition half of the field.
The Wells rush defence rarely gave the back lots of space but two or three times good overlaps were wasted as players took the ball back into the contact area rather than look outside. When it did go outside all too often the ball was spilled.

That said the pressure started to tell and on one occasion when we did get the ball outside Johnny collected the ball and outpaced/ outmuscled the winger to go over for the first points of the day. The conversion narrowly missed the upright but gave the Gs a deserved 5-0 lead.
Wells started to come back into the game but again good forward play saw some driving runs which almost saw Matt P go over for his first try for the club. Collecting the ball at the bottom or the ruck he picked up and drove for the line only to see the balled ripped out of his hand as he was about to score. In a similar fashion the second Gs score came from another forward drive and the always impressive Samraj got the final touch down after driving for the line. So 12-0 at Half-time.
Not quite sure what was said by the Tunbridge Wells coach at HT but Wells upped their game significantly in the second half. This time it was Gs turn to be pinned back and forced time and time again to make good tackles particularly on the Wells centre who had an excellent game. Having made a number of changes Gs lost their shape and discipline and found themselves outflanked and on one occasion this lead to the first try for Wells. The conversion followed to make the score 12-7.

Just as things started to look a bit tight Johnny picked the ball up on our 10 metre line and showed excellent pace and strength to run round the outside of the Wells defence and score under the posts. Bruce made the conversion to take the score to a more comfortable 19-7. To their credit Tunbridge Wells came back again and finished the morning with another unconverted try. As the clock was ticking down on more than one occasion Gs show their naivety and continued to try and play open rugby when keeping it tight would have been the better option.
So, final score 19-12 in what can only be described as a really good game between two evenly matched teams. Thanks also to Gus McCarthy who stood in the middle and refereed the game excellently.

Gravesend points scored by: Johnny H (Try x 2), Samraj (Try), George B (Conversion x 2)

Team: Chalal, Mide, Gillingham, Cormac, Perry, Knapp, Woodbine, Bowler, Levon, Banfield, Titmus, Bruce, Eaton, Firestone, Hunt, Wade-Fautley, Johnson, Farqhuar, Molloy, Sam

Coach’s player(s) of the match: Ben Woodbine (good play in the tight and several good lineout steals)

Additional comments: Next up Dartfordians away on 26th October