Sun shines on a fine cup win for the Stones U14s

Whitstable travelled in ideal weather conditions for a great contest at the New Burlington Field, the starting line-up for Folkestone knew they were in a game when the Whits backs got motoring to get the ball out wide and through for a terrific run for their first points, a good try followed by the conversion for seven points.

Folkestone decided it was time to get started in the game and overcome the initial setback to make aggressive territory gains through the forwards to set Josh Palmer up for a long run in for the first try converted by Jack Hobbs. Josh Palmer also ran in the second after some big gains in the scrum to convert and take Folkestone to 14 points. The centres were eager to get in on the act and Harry Wren supported by Charlie Stratford and Louis Santer ran a terrific angle to score, converted by Hobbsie.

Rob Sherrard was having a great game on the wing and threatened to get on the score sheet many times, then a forwards gain in the loose with Connor Leather at acting scrum half allowed us to use the width, with Rob battling through four tackles to go over to make the score 24 to 7; Josh did the honours with the conversion. Whitstable played solidly for the remainder of the game and full credit to them for the amount of effort they put in, but any forward movement they made was soon quenched by the flankers Dan Croker and Tyler Russell whose work rate was impressive. The coaches Paul and Mark took the opportunity to switch winger in to No8, flanker to wing and demonstrate the great versatility of this developing squad. This gave Tyler the chance to show his pace battling through two tackles then tackled to ground, regained the ball and ran on through another tackle for his own try in the left corner, unfortunately too big an ask for Hobbsie to convert. So at half time Folkestone led by 31 points to 7.

The second half started with a lot of forwards play, Mike Allchin and Burt Guilfoyle protecting the hooker Connor and with Luke Thorpe and Charlie Hewitt putting in the usual astonishing amount of work we secured all of our scrums and most of Whitstable's as well. Chin had showed terrific pace in the first half and continued to make big territory gains with the pack. Louis Santer scored a try with some powerful running, converted by Josh to give the Stones a 38 – 7 lead.

Rory Morgan has got astonishing pace, fact: he just flies, and when a scramble in the mid field with handling errors on both sides came to a scrum which Teds Morris switched out quickly to the right wing, and after further movement was kicked forward for Rory to run onto with a beautiful pick up at pace and after a 20 metre run at full pace he made Hobbsie's conversion easy by planting between the posts. Louis caught the restart and ran back at them, stepping and swerving to go straight through for his second try. Luke McAdam had rested for the first half and demonstrated why he is devastating in the loose by ripping ball and interrupting every play he opposed, eventually showed he has pace as well running and swerving for half the pitch to go over to take Stones to 55 points. As the referee Dan Silvey, who had a very good game, declared that the second half was to be cut short Folkestone made six substitutions and continued to dominate with Josh closing proceedings with his final try. A convincing win for the home team

Man of the match; Josh palmer
Tries: Josh Palmer (3) Louis Santer (2) Harry Wren, Scotty McAdam, Rob Sherrard, Tyler Russell, Rory Morgan.
Conversions: Jack Hobbs (4) Josh Palmer (1)

U14s Squad: Leather; Alchin(capt); Guilfoyle; Hewitt, Stratford; Russell; Karim; Morris; Hobbs; Santer; Morgan; Thorpe; Palmer; Stonebridge; Bolton; Packman; Sherrard; McAdam; Nixon; Price; Palmieri; Wren; Sutton; Little; Croker