12 March 2006
Medway came away from Sunbury with a good win even though they never really got into top gear. The visitors started well enough, with Joe Jelfs fielding a missed kick for touch and running back strongly. The ball was fed to Richard Verrall who scored in the corner.
Two minutes later a neat switch between Stockford and Verrall behind a scrum wrong-footed the defence and Verrall powered past the last defender to double Medway's score and take their tally for the season to 1001 points. He then added a further two from the conversion.
One of the London Irish coaches was quietly voicing concerns about a massacre, but his team recovered from Medway's initial blitz and started to win some ball. However, Medway's pressure defence prevented them from making much headway.
Yet when the visitors had possession they produced a catalogue of wild passes, bad handling and conceded penalties, and for ten minutes the game became a midfield stalemate. Then Stockford snaffled an attempted pop-up by an Irish attacker and Jamie Chapman jinked past three tacklers and ran in from 70 metres.
Just before half-time an attempted clearance kick was dropped by Tom Bourne on the wing. It looked a certain knock-on but Bourne recovered instantly, the whistle remained silent, and he accelerated through the defence. Verrall converted and the score was 24-0.
The first ten minutes of the second half saw some determined and sustained pressure from Irish, and Medway were unable to get out of their 22.
The heavy Irish forwards plunged into the visitors' defensive line time and again, but it was meat and drink to the strong tackling of Stockford, Barnes and Hyder. It requires craft to get past these boys and as Irish failed to find any inspiration, Medway eventually broke free and put some pressure on of their own. Irish were forced to kick out of their 22, and Verrall ran a miscued effort straight back in for his hat-trick.
Five minutes later he nearly did it again, only to be stopped two metres out, but he swung the ball out of the tackle to Aaron Dimmick who dived in. Stockford converted, and Medway left the famous London club with the pleasing scoreline of 36 points to nil.
