FRFC 42 Thanet Wanderers 14

The league season hasn’t started yet and already I’m running out of superlatives to describe the Stones’ performances. Coach, Darren Molloy, set them a tough pre-season schedule. First up were Charlton Park who finished second in London 2SE last season and beat Folkestone by a single try in south London a few weeks ago. Last week the squad travelled to play Fullerians in Watford. They are are also in London 2 but the Stones took them apart winning 29-0. Finally they were up against Thanet Wanderers who were relegated into London 2 at the end of last season and they had no response to the Stones who enjoyed a thumping 42-14 win. Unfortunately Thanet have lost players to Canterbury and Dover and they look to be on a rocky road. I’m “old school” rugby and I do wish players would show loyalty to their clubs. Too often they are dragged away in the hope of “rugby at a higher standard”. Maybe some of them should think about helping their club to a higher standard!
I’ll get off my soapbox and return to the match. From the first whistle the visitors powered up the pitch into the Stones 22. Thanet’s players looked bigger and stronger and with a rolling maul they went over for the opening score which was converted. 0-7.
It didn’t take long for Folkestone to show their quality. After an excellent move Ollie Brooks crashed through the centre before off-loading to Bradley Pearson who went on to score. Pearson added the conversion and it was level at 7-7.
Brooks had shown his team the way through and next up was Richard Lama, taking an excellent line before off-loading to Pearson again. One again he went over the line and the score was Pearson 14 Thanet 7.
Folkestone showed their party tricks for the next score. The ball flew through the hands and, with many dummy runs, Thanet didn’t see Lama bursting through, this time, feeding Jake Johnson and nobody stops him when he’s found his momentum. Pearson added his third conversion. 21-7.
I’m getting sore fingers writing about Pearsons’ conversions. The youngster didn’t miss any so you can assume when you read about the rest of the Folkestone scores, he added 2 points for each.
I heard a Thanet player berate his team mates and they responded well putting pressure on the Folkestone 22 winning a run of penalties and eventually they scored and converted. 21-14.
The Folkestone backs were quickly on the attack and another wonderful attacking move saw Pearson eventually passing to Ollie Brooks to score. 28-14.
Last weekend at Fullerians I saw Richard Bowen for the first time and he impressed me. He impressed again in this match. He powered his way up the pitch blasting through tackles before perfectly off-loading to Mike Gardner. 35-14.
Thanet had no answer to the Folkestone attacks and had nothing to stop the penetration of Brooks, Lama, Gardner, Bowen, Jake Johnson and Aidan Beazley. They were cutting through and when they did get stopped they had support right there for the offload allowing Folkestone to build up their momentum and Thanet had no answer to it.
Man of the Match this week was yet another difficult call as Joe Johnson, Lama, Jake Johnson, Brooks, Beazley, Pearson were all in contention but this week Mike Gardner is the Mainman. I first saw him playing for the Colts in a tournament in Belgium. He was returning to the game after lengthy injury problems and he played some fantastic rugby. Because of work commitments since then he’s not had a decent run in the 1st XV. If he keeps playing as he did today he’s got every chance of a 1st XV place