18 January 2006
They were playing under floodlights for the first time, but it was Medway's sparkling rugby that lit up the night at Aylesford on Wednesday. It was important to put the one-point loss to Old Elthamians behind them, and they did it with style.
After some early possession but little penetration by Aylesford, the Medway pack started to put the pressure on and after 3 minutes fly-half James Davies took advantage of a powerful drive to the five-metre line to go over near the posts.
On 10 minutes, a lineout was won on the Aylesford 22 and some fine passing by Michael Puddy and Joe Jelfs created space for Richard Verrall to straighten the attack, power past the full back and under the posts. The Medway forwards continued to drive with strength and mobility, and constant pressure was forcing Aylesford into errors whenever they had the ball. Superior technique at the set pieces brought two more tries for Medway before half time.
A solid five-metre scrum allowed Ryan Ellis to feed Stewart Stockford, who dived over.
Then another lineout brought a second try for Verrall after Stockford had broken through the Aylesford defensive line. Verrall converted all the half's tries to make the score 28 - 0 at the break.
For the second half Aylesford made use of their 30-plus squad and brought on their biggest boys to bolster their pack. The extra weight made an immediate difference as Aylesford drove a maul 20 metres - something no other side had achieved against Medway this season - to within five metres of Medway's line.
However, the ball was stolen and the Medway backs once again counter-attacked with confidence from deep, with the ball spun expertly along the goal-line until a space was found and ground gained.
The forwards took over the move, and big carries by Gavin Hyder, Richard Petch and Tom Barnes in turn, and rapid recycling at each breakdown, brought Medway to the enemy 22. The backs were unleashed, with Stockford and Bourne spearing through the defence before putting Jelfs into the corner.
Having demonstrated some 15-man rugby of high quality, Medway then treated the crowd to two brilliant individual tries.
First Stockford broke from a scrum on half-way, beat two men with dummies and evaded the attentions of the full back to go over by the posts. Then Tom Bourne, loitering on the blind-side of a maul, cheekily stole the ball from an Aylesford forward and took off. With a couple of high speed swerves and blistering pace over 60 metres, he left the covering defenders trailing dismally.
James Collier scored the last try of the match with a characteristic spurt from the 22 after another break by Hyder. From a standing start, Collier accelerates so rapidly it is surprising his face doesn't bend from G-force, and it was too much for the tiring Aylesford defence.
Verrall capped a superb kicking performance with a conversion of professional quality from the touchline, to make it seven out of eight kicks on the night. With the score at 54 - 0 the referee brought the game to a close a few minutes early.
