Gannets win in Canterbury

Gravesend made the long distance trip down to Canterbury, and following some initial trouble with drivers and passengers and a quick trip to pick up Will Garland who was stuck in bed, 16 players made it down to play at the Simon Langford Grammar School. For the first time for some playing on a 4G artificial pitch which involved a muddy boot inspection by a less than friendly security guard and I get the feeling that we will still be be finding bits of rubber in unusual places for weeks to come!

Following a typical gannets warm up (10 mins) we were off. Gravesend receiving a high ball which was taken up field, with some good work by whole team steady progress was made, eventually the ball was knocked on in the Canterbury half for the 1st scrum. To say that the Gravesend pack had the upper hand in the scrum is an understatement, with the solid ground underfoot a backwards step was not taken all game.

An unfortunate rolled ankle made for the 1st substitution of the day with Garrick Smith coming into flank, Harry Gillham (from the 3s) going into scrum half, Will Garland dropping into the backs, and Martin Taylor heading to the side line to hurl rugby shaped abuse at anyone nearby. The Canterbury penalty count was fairly high and Gravesend initially elected to kick to touch, but as Gravesend had a the upper hand in the scrums Canterbury were dominant in the line-outs, and after a few turn overs on the Gravesend throw-in, the next penalty in the Canterbury 22 a decision was taken to kick for points. With team captain Ben Baker lying by a pool in some sunny holiday destination, it was left to Dan Grant to step up, and even without a kicking tee (Martin Riley was used instead) a good kick gained the 1st points of the day, Gravesend 0-3.

After another long section of play with good defence from both sides a strong run from the Canterbury No.8 gave the home team their 1st points of the day which were converted to give them a 7-3 lead going into half time. A good half time team chat put the wind back in the sails of the Gsss and following the restart and some good all-round play, a fantastic running line from Steve Wooton gave Gravesend a well deserved try which was converted, 7-10. The forwards continued to dominate in the scrums and backs were continually asking questions of the Canterbury defence, leading to some fairly questionable tackles on the solid artificial pitch, one such tackle knocked the stuffing out of Ian Shuttlewood who needed to take some time on the sideline. Martin came back on to fill the gap on the wing and Dan Grant moved to Fly Half.

Some solid forward play including a ‘Dan Grant special’ driving maul gave the Gsss an attack past the 5m line, with which Dan Grant made a spectacular pick and dive over the line in an attempt to score… unfortunately for all concerned it was the wrong line. Fortunately the ball was recycled and given to John Sargent who in his own individual style of sidewards running touched the ball down for an unconverted try, 7-14.

The dominance of the forwards over the Canterbury scrum had taken its toll and a lack of front row replacements led to uncontested scrums. But more solid play from the Gsss meant they were inside the Canterbury 22 again and an aggressive but legal clear-out of the Canterbury prop at the ruck by Mick Woodbine lead to a bit of a scuffle, then a bit of an internal disagreement from the Gravesend team (which the author could not work out what the argument was about) led to Mick substituting himself and the injured Ian coming back on the wing. This gave the Canterbury backs a good advantage which they capitalised on in the last 5 minutes of the game to make the score 14-15. The agreement for the restart was to put the ball high and run down the clock to take the narrow victory. A great turnover shorty after gave the Gsss good ball to run with, with John Sargent crossing the line for the 2nd time and Dan Grant with another superb long distance kick just limping over the cross bar to make the final score 14-22.

The final observations of the day were that Gravesend wanted the win more than their opponents and gutsy play gave them what they were after. Also the lack of substitutes made a big impact with only Harry Gillham making himself available from the higher echelons of the club.

Lord Abbot was skiving in Norfolk.. Dan Grants head is never going to shrink after this many mentions!