The rain was left in Folkestone allowing a good flowing game.

Saturday 15th November 2014. Report by Alex Box.

The Folkestone 2nd team left a very wet home town to make the journey up to Tonbridge, and leaving the rain behind made sure for a great game of running rugby, and another good result for a team that is really enjoying playing and being together.
Our hosts, Tonbridge Juddians 4ths, are a newly reformed team after their club suffered with player loss last year. Their captain Will, has been instrumental in getting players back to their club and building this new look 4ths team.
Tonbridge Juddians is well known for being a great and large club with eight pitches, of which we had the second furthest from the clubhouse, making sure we got some warm up done before kick-off.
The game started with Tonbridge Juddians pressuring Folkestone with heavy work around the breakdown and strong running at Folkestone’s defence. After a series of decisions going against Folkestone at the breakdown, Tonbridge were able to pressure us back into our 22 and keep us there for most of the first game quarter. This pressure eventually turned to points, with the hosts crashing over the line to score the first try of the game. 5-0.
With so little territory, Folkestone made it hard for themselves with final passes not going to hand, and not protecting the ball well enough at the breakdown. But after some strong scrummaging from a new front row including Bob Porter and Adam Fullerton at prop, and carrying a run right to the hosts try line, for Folkestone to win a lineout on the opposition 5 metre line.
A successful lineout was well taken by Scott Stewart jumping at two in the line, and a strong driving maul meant the Folkestone forwards were in full control and drove over the try line for Scott Stewart to score the points. 5-5.
The back line including Frankie Morgan, Elliot Dempsey and Saul Phillips continued to use the ball won through the forwards to make good headway into Tonbridge territory. It was a case of nearly though, as when half-time came, the score remained at 5-5.
The half time chat focussed on knowing our game was working, but we needed to finish the final moves and up the intensity and pace. This seemed to be the difference as Folkestone scored a try just after the restart, with the backs breaking through and Alex Pritchard scoring in the corner. 5-10.
Folkestone maintained the pressure for the rest of the game with the scrums becoming a real strength for building pressure, and some strong carries from Scott Stewart and Dan Cowell. Billy Monk and Ali O’Connor worked hard as the second row combination making a lot of great tackles to help the Folkestone defence stay strong.
More pressure saw Greg Wood score after running a great supporting line when Folkestone made another break through the Tonbridge defence, James Beaney added the conversion. 5-17.
The increased pace and obvious enjoyment that Folkestone was playing with, obviously was helping as another score came through Scott Stewart getting his second try of the match. He ran through the wide defence and brushed aside the last ditch efforts to stop him as Scott Stewart ran under the posts to make the score 5-22 to Folkestone. Which James Beany converted to 5-24.
After a couple of substitutions, with Terry Holt replacing Alistair O’Connor in the second row and James Stewart replacing Dan Cowell and Ryan Morgan making way for John Eustace to move into the centres. This allowed a doubled up fly-half and centre pairing across the pitch which quickly paid off with strong breaking runs from John Eustace allowing Saul Phillips to also break through from the wing and score, making the final score 5-29.
There were some great performance from the whole team, with Greg Wood at scrum half bossing the forwards about, James Beaney running strongly with ball in hand, Saul Phillips using his strength to make breaks, and John Eustace making dents in the defence. With special mention to Adam Fullerton stepping into the prop role for the first time and consistently holding his own at both tight and loose head.
Scott Stewart showed a very strong performance with key tackles, strong breaks and great scores to be the key to the overall performance and the win, a deserved Man of the Match.

Team: Alex Pritchard; James Beaney, Saul Phillips, Elliot Dempsey, Ryan Morgan; Frankie Morgan, Greg Wood; Bob Porter. Alex Box (Capt.), Adam Fullerton; Alistair O’Connor, Billy Monk; Dan Cowell, Kevin Murray, Scott Stewart.
Subs: Terry Holt, James Stewart, John Eustace
Scorers: Scott Stewart 5, 5; Alex Pritchard 5; Greg Wood 5; James Beaney 2; Saul Phillips 5.