19 February 2006
Medway kept their eleventh clean sheet in 17 matches and ran in seven tries in a regulation victory at Barking.
The opposition enjoyed some early possession but were unable to make ground, and it was only two minutes before Medway scored their first, when Richard Verrall was stopped on the line but Stewart Stockford followed up to dive over.
The Barking forwards won lots of ball, especially from lineouts, but the constant pressure on their backs and the controlled ferocity of Medway's tackling forced them into handling errors.
At a ruck on their own 22, the Barking scrum-half tried to clear their lines by kicking, but the ball was sliced directly to Jonathan Saddington on the wing, who ran in to make the score 12-0.
The pressure began to tell, and shortly before half-time Verrall finished a fine combination between forwards and backs by powering for the wing then swerving in to score under the posts.
Directly from the restart Medway took the ball back to Barking, and Verrall was fed from a ruck to burst through the centre. Both tries were converted and the sides turned around with the score 26 - 0.
Barking came out with renewed energy in the second half, and would have scored in the corner early on but for a saving tackle by full back Tom Bourne.
Medway soon re-established the pattern of the first half, and the Medway forwards, notably Tom Barnes, put some bite into their rucking and constantly drove over the gain line.
From a ruck, Stockford put up a high ball which Verrall ran onto and caught. The defence had disappeared and Verrall charitably handed the ball to Joe Jelfs to score under the posts.
Stockford then scored another in similar fashion to his first, after Verrall popped the ball up from the tackle and Stockford forced his way over.
The scoring was completed after a break by James Tindall created some space for the back line to exploit their handling skills, and Jamie Chapman finished it by bamboozling the covering defender with an in-and-out move. Verrall converted twice to make the final score 45 - 0.
