Crawley 5 FRFC 66

Before the match Folkestone coach, Darren Molloy, demanded a bonus point win and total commitment from his players. So after the game he was very pleased with what he described as a high quality performance. Folkestone were well on top but credit to Crawley. They have yet to win a match this season and the RFU has penalised them, for fielding unregistered players, by deducting 30 league points. Consequently they sit at the bottom of the league on Minus 30 points and are almost certainly heading for relegation. Their team, though, kept on playing right to the end of the game.
It was very cold and I felt that frostbitten fingers would result in bad passing and poor handling. As usual I was wrong as Folkestone thrilled their large support with some brilliant passing moves which were a testament to backs coach, Tom Johnson. The ball was flying through the hands as Folkestone launched waves of attack. The Stones pack dominated their opponents and created great openings for their backs.
The first score came after 10 minutes when from a Folkestone scrum Jack McMurray and Adam Tolman exchanged passes before unleashing Ollie Brooks to power over the line. Jon Morton added the conversion. 0-7.
Five minutes later and Brooks was back again. This one came after the Stones won a line-out on the left wing and the ball was shipped through the hands across the pitch before getting to Brooks. Morton added the conversion. 0-14.
It’s getting boring about Morton and his excellent conversions so from now on dear reader you can assume he converted unless I write differently.
The third score on 18 minutes came after another good passing movement set Ben Page down the right wing and nobody could get near him as he sprinted down the touchline. 0-21.
Crawley got on the scoreboard after an excellent penalty kick gave them a line-out on the Folkestone 5 metre line. The ball got into the hands of their huge prop who powered to the line stopping just short. But he had punched a big hole and one of his team mates had an easy pick-up and dive over the line. 5-21.
It wasn’t long before normal service was resumed though. This time Trevor Squire broke through the home defence before offloading to Tolman for the try. 5-28.
5 minutes later and Folkestone were again pushing hard. This time McMurray won a line-out on the right wing. The ball flashed across the park with some fantastic passes eventually to Squire who went over for the score. 5-35.
Into the second half and Ben Brooks came off with a slight knee problem. This led to a reshuffle on the backs but it was a seamless change as Folkestone kept on attacking. For the record Tolman moved to full back replacing Morton who took up Brooks’ wing slot. Evans moved from fly half to scrum half and new signing, Nick Ford, came onto replace Evans at fly half. This was Ford’s debut and the supporters were impressed. He has what appears to be a laser-guided pass and is calm and assured. He is set to become a big favourite with the supporters.
Crawley were back in trouble straight from the kick off which went to Moose Murray who made good yardage up the pitch with Rob Hudson. Squire, Morton and Brooks then took over exchanging passes and Brooks was in for his 3rd try. 5-42.
Again Crawley kicked off but found themselves quickly back inside their own 22. The Stones pack won a scrum against the head and Johnson and Evans drove for the line before a defence splitting pass from Evans to Ford put him through to score. 5-49.
Paul Williamson at the age of 39 (he claims) was making his 1st XV debut in the front row. He and his prop colleague, Moose Murray didn’t take a step backward despite being up against a huge Crawley front row and overpowered them and their good play resulted in Folkestone winning another scrum against the head. This time Evans and Ford exchanged passes before passing to Ben Flatman who carried the ball deeper into Crawley territory offloading to Richard Puddy. 5-56.
Moments later and Puddy battered his way 50 metre up the pitch leaving defenders flat on the pitch pleading for Nurofen and it looked a certain try until the New Zealander dropped the ball on the ground. The popular Kiwi was back in the supporters’ good books minutes later after McMurray stole a Crawley line-out and offloaded to Puddy to, again, batter his way up the pitch leaving the usual trail of destruction before feeding Michal Krizanek who enthusiastically drove to the line. After 8 successful conversions Morton finally missed!
Time for one last score and this time it went to Rob Hudson. He joined the club at the start of the season from Whitstable and has become a great favourite of the Stones support with his aggressive play. After a great solo run from Squire the ball went firstly to Tolman and then on to Evans who gave the ball to Hudson 20 metres out. He made no mistake. And would you believe it, Morton missed again. I thought he was being very silly when, for the 9th attempted conversion he tried to back heel the ball over the bar and on his final attempt he wore a blindfold. However he had hit 8 successful kicks and had played some great rugby.
Which leads us nicely to Man of the Match. Every Folkestone player from 1 to 18 did his job and did it with style. The Folkestone pack dominated everything. Given great ball the backs combined beautifully with some great attacking moves. I’ll go as far as to say that some of the attacks were breath-taking. But if I have to name one player, it’s Trevor Squire. This little chap is a lion on the pitch tackling and downing players twice his size and cutting big holes in the opposing defence when he has the ball.
Next week Folkestone entertain Eastbourne and Molloy will, once again, demand a bonus point victory. If his team come anywhere close to this performance it is well worth your time to get off the armchair to watch them.

A big thank you to Mark and Eckford Travel getting the squad to Crawley comfortably and safely. Shame about the DVD player.

Squad:
J McMurray, M Murray, W Massey, P Williamson, B Flatman, R Hudson, R Puddy, J Johnson, M Krizanek, A Tolman, S Evans, B Page, O Brooks, T Squire, B Brooks, N Ford, J Morton, C Petley

Any part of the above report written in italics is not true.