Medway RFC U17s

16 December 2007

It took a while for Medway to fully rouse themselves, but the occasional use of the blunt instrument and half a dozen very sharp back plays eventually saw them run away with the game. The home side were never quite on song and made basic errors regularly, but when the backs clicked the centre of the Thurrock defence was sliced open and left gutted.

The first five minutes were evenly contested, but then in what seemed an innocuous collision one of the Thurrock props landed awkwardly and went down with a severe leg injury that required an ambulance. Medway RFC wish him well and hope for his speedy recovery.

The match restarted on another pitch and for ten minutes a tit-for-tat battle ensued. First Stewart Stockford made a break from his own 22 and a perfectly timed pass saw Simon Brooks flying 60 metres to go under the posts and make Stockford's conversion a simple one. Thurrock have been having a good season and it was plain that they were high on confidence. Stung by the loss of their teammate and the try, they fought back immediately and scored a try of their own through persistent pressure on the the Medway line, and drew level with the conversion.

Only minutes later Medway regained the lead as the pack produced solid possession from a scrum. A miss pass from James Davies fed Aman Gill at pace, and he spotted a gap and dived in. But once again Thurrock caught the sleepy Medway defence napping just two minutes after the restart, and their centre flew through three missed tackles to go into the corner and level the scores. Medway were then penalised for killing the ball near their line and Thurrock slotted the penalty to take the lead 12 - 15.

Thurrock's tails were up and they had played well to this point, refusing to be discouraged when behind, investing energy in the loose and taking their chances when they came. But having gone behind, Medway at last began to show signs of life. They used the bludgeon once to retake the lead, before unsheathing the rapier to cut the Thurrock defence to pieces, registering 33 points without reply.

Billy James, aka the bludgeon, picked up from a scrum and dragged several defenders over the line from short range, and Stockford converted. Then the rapier, aka the Medway backs, taking full advantage of the forwards' step-up in tempo in the loose, moved the ball through quick hands to Stockford. An inside pass to Ian Findlay on the charge drew the defence. A lovely soft offload from Findlay returned the ball to Stockford and a two-man overlap beckoned, but was not needed. A dummy created the gap and he charged in for a deserved try from 5 metres, and converted himself to make the half-time score 26 - 15.

While Thurrock raided Medway territory several times during the second half, the Medway tackling had tightened up and there looked to be only one winner. Three more tries from the Medway backs closed out the game.

First Aman Gill played a dummy switch with Stockford that gave him a gap to race though. As the fullback advanced, Gill whipped the ball left to James Davies who nimbly sidestepped the cover to go under the posts. Stockford converted to make his record four out of five kicks on the day.

Then Davies returned the complement. Gill fed him and as he straightened he slipped the ball back inside to Gill who accelerated under the posts once more. This time Paul Pierce drop-kicked the conversion.

Thurrock put up some spirited resistance and it was 15 minutes before the final try, but appropriately the it went to Stewart Stockford who once again was inspired at inside centre. Quick ball from a ruck on the right wing moved right down the line to wing Jamie Chapman, who was caught ten metres out. He popped the ball off the floor to Stockford who, with three defenders to beat, showed the class to roll out of one tackle, and hand-off two others to drop over the line and complete the scoring at 45 - 15.