27 November 2005
Medway under-14s brushed aside their inexperienced French visitors in a one-sided match at Priestfields. The Armentieres side were bigger and heavier in the forwards than their Medway counterparts, but the mobility, aggression and superior technique of the home side prevented any significant attack by their opponents while running in ten tries of their own.
Gavin Hyder scored the first, catching the Lille side cold with a blind-side run from the base of a scrum. A minute later, a playful Stewart Stockford sold a dummy so convincingly that his opponent was left sprawling face down on the turf, and sold a second dummy to the next man before setting up Joe Jelfs to run in under the posts.
Five minutes later, two fine tackles in the centre by James Davies and Stockford forced the ball loose. Verrall retrieved it and put James Collier into the corner.
The Medway forwards were winning plenty of ball, and consequently the backs enjoyed good possession. From a five-metre scrum, scrum half Jack Thompson span the ball to Stockford, who found Verrall. Doubling back inside, Verral wrong footed the defence and was able to go under the posts.All four tries of the first half were converted, and the sides swapped ends with the score at 28 - 0.
There was no respite for the French as Joe Jelfs scored three times in the first ten minutes of the second half.
Some ferocious rucking by Medway close to the CLLA line was rewarded when Jelfs, loitering on the narrow side, caught a pass that was going behind him one-handed and rushed low into the corner. He then snaffled a Stockford Garryowen on the second bounce and went over, before rolling out of a maul to score from short range two minutes later.
The French side were now thoroughly dispirited and their heads were going down, but Medway were not in the mood to ease off and hooker Jordan Hannah started and finished the try of the match. Picking the ball out of a ruck on his own 22, Hannah offloaded out of the tackle to Hyder. The ball was moved quickly through Tindall and Barnes before Findlay broke through the defence. Suddenly the ball was with the backs and there was space in front of them. Stockford, Verrall and Jelfs combined to run the ball up to the CLLB 22 and into a maul. The pack arrived quickly in support and drove to within five metres, before Tindall plucked the ball out and handed it to Hannah who dropped over the line for a fabulous team try.
Tindall added another soon after with a short low rush over the line. Fullback Tom Bourne scored the last try of the game by taking a Stockford pass at full speed and brushing off three tackles before diving under the posts. The last two tries were converted for a final score of 62 - 0, and eight wins out of eight for Medway this season.
