Gravesend U16s 26 v 5 Old Elthamians U16s

Gravesend under 16s secured an excellent victory against a well drilled Old Elthamians side at Rectory field on Sunday in an action-packed friendly game.

In damp conditions the first half was an tight affair. Gravesend started well, the forwards doing a great job securing possession and the impressive Matthew Bailey, playing at 10, linking well with the midfield pairing of Owen Walton and Tom Weston. OE’s soaked up the pressure and then enjoyed a good spell of possession of their own working their way inside the G’s 22 and then pinning G’s back onto their try line. A line out on the 5m was repelled and Gravesend forced a turnover to clear their lines just as OE’s looked set to open the scoring. G’s then found themselves down to 14 players due to a yellow card but were resolute in defence to keep the visitors at bay. As the half went on Gravesend got on top, especially in the scrum where Old Elthamians found themselves going backwards on more than one occasion. No sooner were G’s back up to a full complement of players then another yellow card was brandished for dissent to peg G’s back. Despite this Gravesend were looking the more likely to score and could have taken the lead on 29 minutes when they won a penalty, however Bailey pushed the kick wide and as the break approached the game remained scoreless. G’s continued to push and spurned opportunities deep in the opposition 22, Elthamians put on a defensive masterclass on their own try line to stop numerous waves of attack. G’s thought they had taken the lead through Lee Morrison, but he was adjudged to have made a second movement to get across the try line. Then, just as the clock went into the red Gravesend broke the deadlock, scrum half George Dyett with a pick and go from the base of a scrum managed to evade his opposite number and went over under the posts to put G’s in front. Bailey made the conversion for a 7-0 lead at half time.

G’s made 12 changes at the break; this was a full squad game so there were plenty of fresh legs ready going into the second half. The momentum gained at the end of the first half was continued by the new line up as G’s forced Old Elthamians back inside their 22 in the early moments, again the Gravesend dominance of the scrum was converted into points, this time against the head, as number 8 Trenton Friend picked up and beat two defenders to go over in the corner to make it 12-0. Gravesend really started to tick now, some excellent handling and carries from the forwards, Friend, Matthew Reece, Finlay Luscombe and Fin Hampson-Pugh especially catching the eye, but Old E’s stood firm and somewhat against the run of play they scored a try of their own following some lovely build up play to put their talented inside centre over in the corner to pin G’s back to 12-5. A positive team huddle under the posts ensured that Gravesend weren’t going to let OE’s back into the contest and within 3 minutes the lead was restored with Jack Bennett rumbling over under the posts for his first try of the season, Elliot King with the extras made it 19-5. Despite the score OE’s to their credit kept the game competitive, but Gravesend were always in the ascendancy and with a couple of minutes to go Luscombe secured the win to cap another fine performance, King again added the conversion to end the scoring at 26-5.

The win was Gravesend’s seventh in nine games this season and against a side from the tier above in the Kent League it was another confidence booster before the final match of 2023 away against Tunbridge Wells in the league next weekend.

Starting XV
1. Steel
2. Reece
3. Bennett
4. Clack
5. Stunt
6. O. Bateup
7. Hampson-Pugh (C)
8. Chambers
9. Dyett
10. Bailey
11. H. Bateup
12. Walton
13. Weston
14. Smith
15. Oake

Replacements: Edmeades-Stearns, Ezekiel-Hart, Friend, Luscombe, Morrison, Richardson, Singh, Atkinson, Humphrey, King, Ramsay, Shoolbred.

Scorers- Trys: Dyett, Friend, Bennett, Luscombe
Conversions: Bailey (1/1), King (2/3)