FRFC 14 Crowborough 53

by Steve Hughes

The absent Phil Cooper left me the unenviable task of reporting this
match against top of the table Crowborough who have only lost once this
season. It was a brilliantly sunny day with just a light breeze blowing
across the pitch but any pent up anticipation by the large crowd of
supporters was soon dashed when the visitors scored within the first
two minutes. Crowborough kicked off - Folkestone knocked on -the No.8
picked the ball out of the back of the scrum, fed the scrum half
thereby creating the over lap and they were in the corner for 5
points.

Then Crowborough were awarded a penalty in front of the posts and
Folkestone were 8 points down within as many minutes.

Crowborough are a strong, mobile and fluent combination of fast and
elusive runners and for the first twenty minutes it was only by
desperate tackling that Folkestone could keep them out. In that period
the home side had been out of their own half only once. Crowborough
again created the overlap with unseemly ease for the winger to round
the defence and score a converted try under the posts. This was
followed by another similar play but the overlap only managed to score
in the corner!!! No conversion.

Folkestone were putting their bodies on the line with crunching tackles
but were being overwhelmed by the constant flow of the ball within the
combination of Crowborough threequarters and forwards.

The Folkestone pack were under constant pressure in the set pieces and
as the game progressed were being trundled backwards in the scrums and
their usual dominance in the line out was not evident.

Being 20 points down, Folkestone then showed a glimmer of their
capability when Adam Tolman fed Captain Richard Lama on the burst to
see him sprint 40 metres to score under the posts which Jon Morton
converted.

At this point the game appeared much more even and individual sorties
by Ben Page, Jack McMurray, Will Massey and Trevor Squire gave the supporters some heart felt relief.

Crowborough again twice created the overlap using the No. 8 to No. 9
but only managed to get one try way out which was not converted. Half
Time score 27 - 7

There were periods when Crowborough appeared to be disecting the home
side and however much effort Folkestone put into their defence they
were ulimately unable to keep the score down.

Three tries followed in quick succession for the visitors - one
spectacular event which saw their wing forward win the ball on his own
try line and weave his way through the Folkestone team to run the
length of the pitch and score under the posts- which was duly
converted. 53 - 7

These tries were against the run of play as Folkestone on each
occasion were pressing only to find that Crowborough seemed to come
away with the ball and run in tries from some distance out. Some of the
home tackling at this point was not up to the standard normally
produced by Folkestone and Darren Molloy and his fellow coaches must be
disappointed with the final result and how it evolved.

Folkestone never gave up and kept plugging away and were finally
rewarded when the pack worked their way into the visitors 22 metre area
where Jack McMurray forced himself over for a try for Seyhan Fell to
add the conversion.

Folkestone had to contend with a heavier and more mobile eight who
could all handle the ball like threequarters.

This is only Folkestone's fourth defeat in what has been a hard season
but they have a young squad who have gained in stature under Darren
Molloy and his team of coaches and I am sure that next season they
shall again be contenders at the top of the League table.

Editor's Note, Many thanks to the Welsh Wizard for his perceptive match report. We, here at Web Towers want to congratulate Crowborough who with 2 games to go, look to have sewn up the league even if Medway beat them next week. Last season they missed out on promotion on Points Difference. They've learnt from that disappointment and shown commitment and determination as well as some great rugby this season to win that promotion. Full credit to Darren Molloy's Folkestone. They have served up some thrilling rugby this season and they've fought their way into the promotion race but now they know that they've failed. Next season we'll see if they can do a "Crowborough" and learn from their mistakes to come back even stronger. What is beyond dispute is that this has been their most successful season for a long time. Molloy will be looking to strengthen his squad during the summer and next season will see a 5th Folkestone team participating in the RFU leagues when the club's Under 18 squad and the Folkestone Rugby Academy squad pool their resources to take part in a senior league. For us here at the Towers next September can't come quickly enough.