Gravesend U16s 35 v 5 Southwark Tigers U16s

Gravesend under 16s secured their third straight league win to remain top of Kent group 3 with a hard-fought victory over Southwark Tigers on Sunday. The visitors came with a small squad and their cause wasn’t helped when they lost one of their props to a head injury in the warmup, then with barely two minutes into the game they lost another player after a misjudged tackle on Matthew Bailey left their player with a black eye and unable to continue. The match continued with uncontested scrums agreed; despite this setback Southwark made a spirited start repelling early Gravesend pressure, Kyle Grace having a try ruled out after a double movement to get over the line.

Gravesend got on the scoresheet after ten minutes, fly half Ben Fenton-Smith taking advantage of a dog leg in the Tigers defence and using his pace to go over in the corner. Gravesend continued to pressure the visitors with the pack forcing Southwark onto the back foot forcing turnovers at the breakdown and a host of knock-ons. With 18 minutes on the clock G’s doubled their advantage with a move straight from the training ground. Will Stearns combining with scrum half Noah Atkinson off the back of a scrum who fed Ethan Ramsay to go over in the corner. Fenton-Smith missed his second tricky conversion and the advantage remained at 10-0. Five minutes later Tigers got themselves back in the game, Charlie Richardson thought he had forced another turnover with a jackal but in the referee’s eyes hadn’t shown a clear release, Southwark restarted quickly to catch G’s flat footed as the ball was moved wide for them to score in the corner. Gravesend responded well, again dominating possession, but not taking advantage when there were opportunities to score. Southwark did very well defending on their try line as Gravesend failed to get over despite numerous line out and scrums inside the 22 and Bailey having a try ruled out for a forward pass in the build up. With time about to expire at the end of the first half G’s opted to go for the posts to extend their lead to 13-5 at the break.

With the game becoming bad tempered towards half time, the coaching talk focussed on G’s keeping discipline and converting possession into points, something the team were guilty of in the loss to Deal last week. Gravesend responded well, again dominating the early exchanges around the Tigers 5m line, after few drives for the line the ball went wide and Fenton-Smith took advantage of a stretched defence to cross the whitewash for his second try of the game on 46 minutes. Soon after it was the forwards turn to break the Tigers resistance; from close range, loosehead Max Steel secured the vital bonus point by going over in the corner. Southwark were struggling to contain Gravesend now, G’s dominating collisions and possession as the visitors grew tired, their lack of substitutes was taking its toll. On the hour mark, second half substitute Jack Stunt capped a fine individual display with a cut back inside and drive to the line which pushed the Gravesend lead to 28-5. As tempers became frayed Gravesend had one more score in them, an intelligent kick down the middle put the Tigers full back in trouble on his own try line and George Dyett came in to rip the ball and touch down for Gravesend's sixth try. Fenton-Smith added a conversion to open up a 30-point lead. Southwark lost another player to injury which left them only 12 fit players, so it was agreed by the coaching teams to end the game with just under 6 minutes left to play.

The 35-5 win keeps the Gators at the top of group 3 with a one-point advantage over Aylesford with Tunbridge Wells a point further back in 3rd. G’s travel to St Mark’s recreation ground on December 17th to meet Tunbridge Wells in what will be a mouth-watering pre-Christmas clash.

Staring XV
1. Steel
2. Reece
3. Morrison
4. Richardson
5. Clack
6. Luscombe
7. Hampson-Pugh (C)
8. Stearns
9. Atkinson
10. Fenton-Smith
11. Grace
12. Bailey
13. Dyett
14. Ramsay
15. Walton

Replacements: 16. Bennett. 17. Chambers. 18. Stunt. 19. Shoolbred. 20. Humphrey

Scorers
Trys: Fenton-Smith (2), Ramsay, Steel, Stunt, Dyett
Conversions: Fenton Smith (1/6)
Penalty: Fenton-Smith (1/1)