Folkestone fail at Bromley

BROMLEY 46 pts v FOLKESTONE 6 pts 19th September 2015
By Alan Schofield
Perennial adversaries Bromley and Folkestone have a history of results with very small margins, but for the opening game of this season it could it be considered that Bromley were the favourites having won the R.F.U. Senior Vase at Twickenham in May. And so our congratulations are due to them, and also their Colts who won the National U17’s competition at Sale. On the other hand - Bromley had not won a league game since February– so it posed the question of which Bromley team was on view this day?
It didn’t take long to find out, for Bromley had run in three tries and 15 points within 20 minutes, and Folkestone were on the back foot against an unrecognisable team from previous seasons, and the same Club which suffered a 40+ point defeat by the Stones only last year.
Folkestone’s selection was in disarray as three experienced scrum halves were all on the injured list, and regulars Chis Petley and Jon Eustace were unavailable, therefore changes in three areas of the game were forced upon the team coach, Leigh Fitchie. In came Doug. Wood – just after his 17th birthday, and another 17 year old, Josh Holt was given his league debut. The pack was reshuffled, as were the backs.
Bromley’s speed, strength and movements were quickly in evidence, as was Folkestone’s lamentable defence and the large home crowd had much to cheer about as their team found it easy to break through from scrums, mauls and rucks.
Seyhan Fell recovered some of the situation with two well taken penalties to hold the score at 15 – 6 for a while., but after 28 minutes Bromley created a wide gap centre field and ran in unopposed under the posts to extend the lead to 22 - 6. And before half time they had increased this to 29 – 6 with another unchallenged run through the Folkestone lines.
The half time team talk by Leigh Fitchie was unambiguous! But to no immediate avail for the second half opened with Bromley firmly in Folkestone territory, increasing their lead, first by three points from a penalty, and then an embarrassing try where the opposing scrum half beat five players, one by one, to score the sixth try under the posts and duly converted to stretch the score to 39 – 6.
And then there was a complete change in the game – remarkable to see, unlikely and unforeseen. Bromley were prone to conceding penalties in their determination to win the ball and they were rattled when suddenly Folkestone captain ‘Moose’ Murray rallied his forwards and the eight men started to push their opponents backwards, and uphill. The combination of ground gained by penalties and the new found dominance from the pack put Folkestone firmly in the Bromley 22 metres defensive area – and there they stayed for over 20 minutes!
Bromley, amazingly, conceded 9 penalties, and two yellow cards in a 12 minute period as they desperately protected their try line. Captain Murray elected to take scrums for every penalty awarded – most of them in centre field and within 15 metres. He took the view that his side were beaten, and wanted some consolation by crossing the line.
Adam Tolman moved to scrum half and he directed kicks from well won ball towards his backs, and Ollie Walton, Doug Wood and Ross Dempsey all were pulled back, close to the line. The forwards were rampant with Tom Carvill, determined and red faced in his efforts, was frustrated time and time again by his opposition.
But Bromley continued to hold firm, in spite of desperate flouting of the laws of the game. In the second half Bromley conceded a total of 16 penalties – but to good effect, as the final score showed. But, at this point, the score did not reflect upon the period of dominance, team spirit and guts that Folkestone showed – and had the very easy penalty kicks been converted into points then the final result could easily have been read more comfortably.
Tom Carvill was penalised for boring in at the scrum, which was ironical as the Bromley front row were masters of this tactic, and the resultant penalty gave them temporary relief. But Jon Morton slipped a tackle on the half way line made ground at released Ollie Walton, at speed, in a thrilling move. Josh Kemp, following up took a short pass only to be pulled down within inches of the line.
The disappointment in not scoring that try was palpable and it was the last big effort. The Bromley backs found a gap in the exhausted defence and ran through a final converted try in the last minutes of the game to increase the score to a 46 – 6 and a well-deserved win from a team that showed speed and initiative in attack and some uncompromising defence.

Team: James Archer; ‘Moose’ Murray; Tom Carvill; Dave Ballard; Jack Barton; Will Massey, Fraser Hendy; Will Turner; Doug Wood, Adam Tolman; Ross Dempsey, John Morton, Ollie Walton; ‘Thomo’ Murray; Seyhan Fell.
Subs: Ross Kemp, Jake Ellis, Josh Holt.
Scorers: Seyhan Fell 3,3.