TJ 3rd 39 - Gravesend 7
Report from Anon.
Hopefully this means a corner has been turned - after some near misses in previous games and a laboured first half when we had all the ball and seemed to want to walk over the line, we finally killed off a game. It took Gravesend 20 mins to get into our 22 and then another ten minutes to get back - unfortunately they promptly scored. At this time we were leading 3-0 but should have had a try or two. Stuart Yeomans finally got over a few minutes later to give us a 10-7 halftime lead. The Forwards were working well (Some well worked driving) and despite having Chris Cox out of position at hooker we held our own in scrum and lineout (Ridley throwing in, Britcher and Yeomans jumping).
In the backs we again had too much for the opposition. Some great tackling in the centres (Especially Smith) stopped Gravesend whenever they tried something and Bridge and Shoebridge particularly kept cutting through. Great work from Esmond Brown again. Trouble was the last pass kept going astray or an overlap was ignored.
Second half we did seem to up the concentration and after about an hour broke their resistance. The forwards continued to drive well and tackle hard, Yeomans was captain on the field and did a great job leading from the front, aided as usual by James Kidby. Cox was getting around the pitch well and put in a couple of good runs. From somewhere we'd acquired Callum Golds from the 4ths as a kind of utility back / back row player and I put him on then. Quite lively. Nick Carroll played well carrying . Toby Gilbert rocked up at half time so I let him run on for the last ten minutes and he promptly scored the last try.
The only sub who didn't get on was yours truly - the back five were going so well I didn't want to break it up, plus I half expected an injury or two late on, which didn't happen.
In summary a really good performance. The guys seemed to enjoy it a lot. Considering we had no prop, referee or even a full backline until Jarvis and Burke sauntered in at 2.10 it all turned out well. Man of the match was tough but gave it to Coxy for his all round work and doing well out of position at short notice.
