18 December 2005
Gravesend were blown away like leaves in the wind by the strength and skill of the Medway team, who were in festive mood and ran in nineteen tries.
Gavin Hyder scored in the first minute with a short run infield from the wing, and Stewart Stockford added another a minute later from a similar position. Medway never looked back. In short order, Richard Petch scored from short range, Aaron Dimmick ran in from half way, Richard Verrall scored three, and Hyder scored his second.
Gravesend's tackling was much too weak to stop the power of Medway's runners, and Medway skillfully varied their play with moves wide in the backs and driving through the centre with the forwards.
With the score at 50 - 0 after only fifteen minutes, Medway used the remaining ten minutes of the half to practice their lineout play by kicking into touch at every opportunity.
Playing up the slope in the second half did nothing to slow Medway's scoring, and Gravesend were unable to mount a serious assault on Medway's territory. Stockford, Verrall and Hyder all took their tallies to four, Tom Bourne took advantage of a fine offload by James Davies, and Joe Jelfs brought up the ton with a 50-metre dash down the wing. A superb driving maul by the pack took Petch over for his second. Tom Lillicrap, supporting Verrall at speed, took his pass on the five-metre line and scored his first try for the club under the posts.
Hyder ended the match as he had begun it with a fly hack and follow-up to take his personal score to five tries and Medway's to 117 points. Stockford converted eight of the tries and Verrall three.
Much tougher opposition awaits in the new year, but in the meantime the Medway U14s have had a remarkable first half of the season. They have played and won 11 matches, scored 641 points and 106 tries while conceding only 17 points and 3 tries.
