1st XV
2nd XV
3rd XV
1st October 2005
Park won the toss and decided to play with the slope and wind. Aiming to make a good start and get a foothold on the game, which we hadnt done so far this season
Exactly what we got from the kick, the forwards were superb in the loose, scrums were solid and discipline was spot on. The forwards put phases together and held the ball, again a first for the season. And in defence the back row were solid and whitstable were going backwards for the whole first half. The wind allowed us to play the whole half in whitstable territory. Forwards supplied clean and fast ball, with the first try coming off the back of a scrum, russ turner spinning it out to forder who bashed through with ease under the posts
7-0, quickly followed by a penalty, 10-0
again, a solid scrum lead to a wide backs move with Russy popping off to forder out of the tackle, for another try under the posts 17-0
straight down whits end again, forwards controlling the phases, sun blind to oli carr for another try in the corner, converted 24-0
whits finally secured some possession and after a couple of missed tackles and some dubious decisions, our back row were almost to fast for the ref! whits went under the posts, 24-7
Park reacted superbly, straight down the other end, back row turnover the ball from the kick off, more phases and strong set play, lead to russ turner being able to fly in under the posts untouched
31-7
a couple of missed penalties in the half and score could have been more
It was always going to be difficult to keep up the level of intensity going through the game and Whits were always going to come back into it at some point, especially with wind and slope, and played much of the half down Parks end. But solid defence and great discipline allowed turnovers and Whits giving away stupid penalties when they looked like scoring always allowed Park some breathing space clearing the ball
Whits got too close though!!! a couple of tries bringing them right back in it. A penalty for Park gave us some further rest bite, 34-26 with about 5 minutes left. Whits took the option of a penalty to bring them within 5 points with couple of minutes again
Their fly half broke wide and a superb covering tackle from Forder broke up the play, with Whits again giving away a stupid penalty on our 5 yard line allowing me to kick the ball out for the final whistle
34-29 final score
Even though the ref told us it was 41-25 (he even put that on the score card originally) with 5 mins left, so not sure what happens there if Whits had won as had no idea it was that close (prob nothing i know Danny!)
Superb performance all round, total rugby in first half, with grit and hard work in second half. Always wanted to build on a fast start, exactly what we did
Forder was excellent in the centres, the wings worked hard throughout in defence and attack, Russ turner showed exactly what he can do when given some quality ball and the back row were immense. And that carried through the rest of the forwards who played with much more of a spring in the step
Discipline was good with Whits trying to get us to rise to it, with 3 fresh bite marks on our players to show that one
Man of the match shared between Tom Bailey/Russ Turner/Mark Forder
Enjoyed it loads, more of the same please