Gannets defeated at Darts

A Gannets side missing a few regulars, as appears typical for friendly fixtures especially during six nations season, and adjusting to an early kick off conceded three quick tries in the opening 15 minutes of this fixture away to Dartfordians. The tries were created through fast phase play and strong running from the Darts but also through missed tackles and a lack of organisation that most likely stemmed from the lack of recent matches and the unfamiliar combinations in the Gravesend line up.
To the credit of the Gravesend side on the day, captained by Rich "Mayhem" Mayhew who was likely looking to make up for knocking on direct from the opening kick off, the team rallied and started to produce a string of decent phases and build some pressure of their own. Gravesend made ground from a series of penalties and regularly secured their ball at the lineout. After a number of phases a blindside chip by the Gravesend fly-half was collected on the bounce by Oliver Karabardak who showed good awareness to draw the fullback and pass inside to the fly-half following up his kick who completed the run to the line to touch down and follow up with a good conversion on the stroke of half time. The half time score of 19-5 suggested that the Gannets were still in the match and the guys returned to the pitch motivated to build on the good work of the final 20 minutes of the first half.
Gravesend exercised good control again for the opening 10 minutes of the second half, but unfortunately failed to find another score. Following this Dartfordians broke away to score a couple more tries, and kept going to run in 10 tries and convert 7 of them by full time.
Despite the final score there are positives that the Gannets can take away from this match, including the spirit and ability shown in the middle of the match to keep a skilled and organised Dartfordians away from our tryline. In fact, if the game was scored in the middle 15 minutes of the match we managed to win 7-0!
In the following weeks Gravesend will be hoping to return to winning ways based upon the strong defence, effective communication and good organisation that has served them well for the majority of the season. Until next time...