A friendly fixture which allowed the Folkestone Coaches to field all 22 members of the squad

This was a friendly fixture which allowed the Folkestone Coaches to field all 22 members of the squad during the game giving them an insight into their capabilities prior to the start of the League matches.
It was obvious from the start that Thanet were the stronger of the sides benefiting from superior height and weight and early on in the game the home pack were struggling to hold their opponents. However, they played with a tenacity which kept Thanet on their toes and solid tackling kept them from crossing the line until the half hour mark.
This was a mixed side and roughly 60% of them had never played with each other previously so it was an experimental side who took a little while to put it together. Coupled with the fact that there were several youngsters and players playing out of position.
After 7 minutes Thanet opened the score with a penalty in front of the posts and repeated it from the same spot after 20 minutes after Folkestone were penalised at the ruck and offside at the maul. 0-6.
After 23 minutes Thanet infringed and Frankie Morgan replied with a penalty. 3-6.
The pack were struggling to hold the heavier Thanet eight but were holding their own in the loose, led by Alex Randall (who was my Man of the Match), Josh Kemp, Ashley Gilligan and David Jarvis. The half back pair of Jordan Godden and Frankie Morgan worked well but had insufficent ball to play an expansive game.
Thanet went further ahead on 30 minutes when their right wing gathered a kick out of defence to waltz in near the posts but the conversion failed. 3-11. They then went on to add another converted try (44
minutes) to give them an 3-18 lead.
Jordan Godden then chipped ahead in his own half, gathered the ball and inter-passed before Aaron Robbins provided Jordan Godden with the last pass to score under the posts. Morgan took too much time in his run up for the conversion and had it charged down. 8-18.
Folkestone were being denied possession of the ball but the tackle count was high and frustrated the visitors on a number of scoring chances. Half Time: 8-18.
Thanet took a scrum against the head on the Folkestone line on 48 minutes, fed the centre who burst through under the posts but the conversion was missed. 8-23.
Mark Bartlett damaged his knee and was replaced by a newcomer Alex Evans who originally only turned up to watch but I'm sure will feature in the front row in the future. A bout of inter-passing by Thanet resulted in another unconverted try after 50 minutes 8-28 and Folkestone were just short of replying when Randall broke off the blind side to feed Geoff Barraclough who was charged into touch at the corner flag by a desperate Thanet defence. Several changes were made at this point by Folkestone so that everyone played.
An attempt to break out of defence from the Folkestone line suffered the consequences of being turned over and allowed Thanet and easy try in the corner. No conversion. 8-33.
A neat pass from James Mead saw Alex Randall run a beautiful line to crash through the defensive line and score under the posts after 70 minutes for Frankie Morgan to convert. 15-33.
However, Thanet had the last word when a pass from the back row saw the centre slice through to score under posts and convert to make the final score 15-40.
Bearing in mind the strength of the opposition this display by Folkestone must have given some heart to Coaches Leigh Fitchie and Mark Spearpoint, enabling them to look to the future.

Team: 15. Alex Pritchard; 14. Jade McCaffery, 13. Jamie Curtis, 12. Aaron Robbins, 11. Chris Goldfinch; 10. Frankie Morgan, 9. Jordan Godden; 1. James Archer, 2. Ashley Gilligan, 3. Mark Bartlett; 4. David Jarvis, 5. Adam Fullerton; 6. Josh Kemp, 7. Kevin Murray, 8. Alex Randall.

Subs: Keith “Chops” Packham, Alex Evans, Billy Monk, Jake Ellis, James Mead, Bryce Torrance, Chris Jarvis, Tony Bass, Ryan Morgan, Geoff Barraclough, Bobby Hulpin
Scorers: Frankie Morgan, 3, 2; Jordan Godden 5; Alex Randall 5;