6 November 2005
The Medway under-fourteens sponsored by Beadles Toyota continued their 100% start to the season with a convincing victory and another thirteen tries.
Old Gravesendians were behind in less than a minute when James Collier went over in the corner after being put in by Joe Jelfs. Two minutes later Jamie Chapman picked up a sliced clearance kick and raced into the other corner.
In a textbook Number 8 move, Richard Petch picked up the ball from the base of a 5-metre scrum to dive in for the third, and Jelfs intercepted a loose pass to run in under the posts from 60 metres out.
Flanker Tom Barnes then picked a ball out of a ruck and successfully stretched
one-handed for the line, before Richard Verrall took a pass from Stewart
Stockford and cut infield through the remnants of the defence to score
under the posts. Verrall converted for a third time. With the score at
36 - 0 after 12 minutes Old Gravesendians might have collapsed completely,
but they showed great determination to drive Medway back to their line
and sustain some pressure. They eventually broke through the defensive
line to notch the first points scored
against Medway this season.
If OGs thought they might get back in the game they were mistaken. Medway ran in three more tries before half time, with Stockford scoring less than a minute later, Chapman finishing a fine passing move across the backs, and Stockford taking a pass from Hyder to run in uncontested to make the half time score 51 - 5.
With the sloping pitch against them in the second half Medway were restricted to four further tries. From a scrum on their own 22 metre line, aggressive running right through the middle by Stockford, Petch, and Hyder created space for Jelfs to finish under the posts.
Medway's forwards began to apply sustained pressure on the OG defence and kept the team in the opposition half. At the right moments the ball was released to the backs and Collier ran round the defence to score. Stockford then dived in from two metres and Verrall notched his sixth conversion.
Finally Stockford again broke through for his fourth of the match and Medway's fiftieth try of the season after only 5 matches.
