A beautifully sunny day and a good pitch at the Dover home ground meant everyone was eager to play some rugby.

22nd March 2014 Report by Alex Box
Dover 3rds 49 Folkestone 2nds 10
A beautifully sunny day and a good pitch at the Dover home ground meant everyone was eager to play some rugby. The home side were especially eager to win after a loss to Folkestone in the previous return fixture. Both sides were vastly different to that last match, with Folkestone 2s being more represented by 2s, 3s and 4s squad players (also four ex-2nd team players now in the 1st Team squad at Burgess Hill) and Dover obviously providing a much stronger squad than before.

The game started with difficulties for the visiting Folkestone team. Dover gained a quick breakaway try and conversion in the first two minutes. This was followed by a strong Folkestone response with hard defence forcing Dover into touch to turnover possession, but an offside offence at the breakdown allowed Dover to take a quick tap penalty and run in a try through a confused Folkestone defence.

After this followed a long period of great attacking pressure from Folkestone, with quick penalties being taken smartly by Luke Simpson, some lineout drives with Rob Jackson and Harry Paton leading the push, and then four held up tries after some strong running from Anthony Bass, Jake Ellis and Jamie Curtis.

Dover started to drive Folkestone back, so yet another penalty gave Folkestone the chance to start their scoring with a well taken penalty from Alex Pritchard.
After this, Dover began to attack in earnest, with a large number of scrums featuring throughout the whole game. The older and more experienced front row of Bob Porter Alex Box and Keith Packham helped the following pack of Thomas Doughty, Rob Jackson, Jake Ellis, Anthony Bass and Harry Paton to really put pressure on the Dover scrum, surprising the opposition by taking the upper hand and driving the Dover scrum back.
Folkestone’s inability to distribute effectively through their backline, meant Dover had the defensive answer to stopping each Folkestone player trying to attack. Right at the end of the first half, chances appeared for Folkestone, with exceptional running in attack from Guy Ellis and Alex Pritchard. But, a knock on from the lineout near Dover’s try line, meant a quick response and another breakaway try the length of the pitch for Dover.

The second half produced more of the same, but Dover made some telling replacements, with two new players scoring immediately after arriving on the pitch. Folkestone's own replacement were also welcoming help, with Peter White and Gareth Webber helping with the hard work in the forwards, and Ross Clark covering wing with James Mead returning to play for the first time since injury last September.

Folkestone still showed glimpses of good: with immense tackling from Anthony Bass playing right on the edge; Guy Ellis coming off his wing looking for work and making a difference; Alex Pritchard moving to fly-half and combining with a strong passing James Mead to give more strength and distribution in the mid-field; and Luke Simpson making some great runs from the full-back position.

But Man of the Match goes to the great Harry Paton, scoring after a well taken quick tap penalty and producing a crash ball try for Folkestone, but also being hard in defence and taking responsibility for taking the ball through the Dover forwards.
Team: Alex Pritchard; Guy Ellis, Damian Tyson, Jamie Curtis, Damien Dixon; Connor Addington, Luke Simpson; Bob Porter, Alex Box (Capt), Keith Packham; Rob Jackson, Thomas Doughty; Jake Ellis, Anthony Bass, Harry Paton;
Subs: Gareth Webber, Peter White, James Mead, Ross Clark.