A beautiful sunny winter day welcomed this Folkestone Seconds to their home ground to play the visiting Dover Thirds team.

30th November 2013 Shepherd Neame Premier 2 East Report by Alex Box

A beautiful sunny winter day welcomed this Folkestone Seconds to their home ground to play the visiting Dover Thirds team. The Folkestone First team were playing at home too, and both home teams were unveiling their new kit of the traditional white and green hoops.

Dover arrived with a young development squad that also included some familiar faces we recognised as long serving stalwarts of previous Dover sides. Folkestone Seconds also had a good mixture of experience and young talent, but yet again were a team that had not trained or played together much before.

The team were excited to be wearing the new kit, so shirts were quickly donned and we made our way up to the top pitch for warm-up and pre-game drills. Folkestone won the toss and elected to start into the wind with the low winter sun on our backs.

The match began with some pressure and territory by Folkestone pushing into the Dover half through quick forward breakdown play, and some hard running over the gain line by the Folkestone backline. But, Dover managed to force the turnover and repaid the pressure, with an extended period of time spent in the Folkestone 22, but some enthusiastic defence ensured tackles were made and the Dover ball was turned over.

Mid-way through the first half, Folkestone really put the pressure on the Dover forwards, with strong scrummaging from Mat Roots and Bob Porter as the immoveable props. But, the number of turnovers that the forwards were winning in the breakdown really forced Dover further back to their own line. Throughout the game, Kieran Smith, Tony Bass and David Jarvis were always involved in causing Dover problems at the breakdown and stealing ball.

The ball was moved out through the hands of the backline and into the clutches of the imposing frame of Damien Tyson, who obliged by breaking through tackles and gaining metres every time he ran with ball in hand.
The scores started to come as a result of the telling pressure, with Ryan Farrow, Fraser Nurse and Dan Woolford continually combining to carve through the Dover defence and gain the tries. Tries were well deserved for Ryan Farrow for cutting through defences and Dan Woolford making space for himself to run through and straight under the posts. The place kicking duties were well taken by David Jarvis, making nearly all his conversions from various positions on the park.

The Folkestone forwards showed the backs that they could score too, through strong scrums and quick breakdown recycling on the Dover line, for Anthony Bass to pick the ball up and dive towards the line for a clear score.

During the second half, Mat Roots particularly enjoyed receiving the restart kicks that were repeatedly kicked straight to him. This meant he relished the repeated running straight back at the opposing Dover pack and carrying the ball and their players with him, to ensure the pressure was turned straight back on. As captain, I had a few chances to show off the ‘truffle shuffle’ sidestep and was pleased to make some ground with ball in hand.

The second half also contained some great running and a show of talent from Elliot Jones and Jamie Curtis with David Jarvis swopping from the second row to outside centre. Nick Foster moved onto the forward flank and immediately got more ball in hand and was able to show some evasive running to frustrate the opposition. Lorenzo Lupi and Dan Morgan both came off the bench to get their chance to show what they could do in the front and second row respectively.

More tries followed, including a well taken quick tap penalty from Ben Stringer who ran straight at the Dover pack, but then looped left through the Dover back line to score himself.

Dover stepped up the aggression and hard running with ball in hand for the last 15 minutes, but Folkestone refocused again to continue the solid defensive display shown so far during the game.

With the score finishing 64-0 in Folkestone’s favour, there were a number of players who made a great impact on the game, including another set of heroic tackles from ‘Wall of Fraser’ Nurse, hard hitting running from Damien Tyson, some defensive slicing lines and support play from Ryan Farrow all deserving of a special mention. As team captain, I was impressed and felt confident through the game in a great performance from a strong and hard-working forward pack. But, the stand out performance, work rate and impact made by David Jarvis in his second row role in the first half and his back line performance in the second half, really deserves the Man of the Match accolade.

Team: Jamie Curtis; Damien Tyson, Elliot Jones, Ryan Farrow, Nick Foster; Dan Woolford, Fraser Nurse; Bob Porter, Alex Box, Mat Roots; Anthony Bass, David Jarvis; Ben Gunn, Kieran Smith, Ben Stringer.