Dover 49 Tonbridge Juddians 5
Report from Geoff Pettitt
Any expectation, resulting from Dover's close result last week at Lewes combined with TJ's recent, modest improvement in form, that TJs would be able to beat a Dover side which is threatening the top of the table were soon washed and blown away at The Crabble Ground. It turned out to be TJ’s worst defeat so far this season and one of their more disappointing performances.
It did not start too badly. For ten minutes the contest took place in the middle of the field with both sides feeling their way and getting to grips with the wet conditions underfoot. It was a pity then that such a steady start should have been shattered by the very first piece of real back play. Dover won a scrum just inside TJ's half and with simple, quick and sure passing together with some direct running they produced the room for their left wing to outpace the TJ's cover not only to score but to run round and touch down under the posts. The conversion, even in the tricky conditions, was a formality and TJs found themselves seven points down.
This was a sign of things to come. Dover's backs were evidently quick and decisive and they clearly had every intention - and the time and the space - of running the ball whenever they could. In addition, they were equally quick of the mark in defence putting TJs under intense pressure when their visitors won the ball.
TJs did not help themselves when they failed to find touch from a welcome penalty. Dover fielded the ball on their right touch-line with plenty of room to run. They ran to such good effect that after passing the ball rapidly through a number of hands their fly-half was able to cross in the left hand corner, the whole move having covered half the length of the field. The kick failed but Dover had taken the score to 12 - 0.
TJs woke up at last. A penalty kick to the right hand corner put them in a good position but they failed to secure an untidy ball at the ensuing line-out. At least they had threatened the Dover line.
Dover continued to play with great self-confidence and desire - two qualities that have been sadly lacking for most of TJ's season so far. It was, nevertheless, TJs who scored next. Burgess pounced on a loose ball when Dover were on the attack and almost produced a runaway try when first Wesley then Ventin joined in the charge. A good position in Dover’s 22 was established and this time TJs did not allow mistakes or the defence to deprive them of such hard won ground. After a good, concentrated series of attacks it fell to No 8 Ure to touch down after TJs had driven the maul over the Dover line. With the rain really lashing down now it was no surprise that the attempted conversion kick failed.
Were TJs now on the point of making a real game of it? Regrettably, the short answer was no. Within three minutes and through simple, straightforward running and passing Dover had scored a further try to take the score at half-time to Dover 17 Tonbridge Juddians 5.
There had been some encouraging signs for TJs in the first half but they were widely interspersed with multiple threats from the home side. But, to an optimistic TJ, all did not seem to be lost just yet.
And TJs started the second half well. Their early pressure obliged Dover to infringe in a kickable position. But the conditions underfoot were not at all conducive to place kicking and regrettably, once more the kick at goal failed.
Having forced Dover to concede a penalty and thereafter for a short period having maintained an attacking position in the Dover half, TJs reverted somewhat to type. They conceded two penalties in quick succession which resulted in the loss of sixty metres of territory. This placed Dover in a good attacking position of their own at the other end of the field. They took full advantage and from the line-out drove the maul over TJ's line for a try.
From then on TJs were very much on the back foot for all but the last five minutes of the match.
A quick throw-in by TJs was quickly snuffed out by a lively Dover forward who ripped the ball off the beleaguered TJ defender and passed on to a colleague backing up and, with TJ's defence out of position and now outnumbered, he was able to canter through to touch down under the posts. TJ's anxiety to try something different had, as often happens to a team lacking self-belief and seeking miracles, only ended in conceding a soft seven points.
Dover's forwards, who had been matched by TJs earlier in the game, became more and more dominant and started to put TJ's pack under pressure in the scrums. They were also more than willing to run and ruck hard in the loose and were now outplaying the TJ's eight at every turn.
With such a wealth of possession scores were, of course, bound to follow and during the next twenty five minutes a dispirited TJ's team had a very hard time of it indeed with Dover in a buoyant mood adding four more tries to TJ's none.
TJs finished the half and the game on the attack but Dover, as well as being good on the attack, were desperately determined in defence and showed themselves unwilling to concede a further score to their visitors.
This was indeed a most disappointing performance by TJs. Only in fits and starts did they match Dover in any phase of the game. The pack, with the outstanding exception of Carroll, did not reproduce the fire and desire that they found last week against Chichester and in the week before against Gravesend. Without good ball the backs, with little room to move anyway, had scant opportunity to show their paces and they spent their afternoon chasing a very well-drilled and competent Dover back-line.
It was perhaps a forlorn hope that TJs could win this game against a team that seems to be at the top of its form. But it would have been so much better for their morale if they had, by playing a limited but controlled game, cut out some of their errors and thereby prevented some of the scores against them and if they had, at the end, managed to force a second score of their own.
Tonbridge Juddians 1st XV: Cheeseman (Piacevsky 30); Burgess, Wesley, Goldsworthy, Cocks; Ventin, Mitchell (Capt); Stevenson, Wallace, Parrott, Carlton, Fitzpatrick, Allen, Carroll, Ure (Sharkey 41).
There is no league fixture for TJs next week. They return to duty on Saturday 15th December 2007 when a resurgent Eastbourne pay their visit to The Slade, kick-off 2.15 pm.
