Folkestone spread their wings and win with a bonus point.
Now in their 137th year, Park House, one of the oldest Clubs in rugby was welcomed at Burlington Fields, with the kudos of their win against the French national team, on their first ever visit to England in 1893.
FOLKESTONE 1stXV 31 PARK HOUSE 1stXV 15
Saturday 22nd February 2020. LONDON 3 SE. Report By:- R.G. Bargey
FOLKESTONE SPREAD THEIR WINGS AND WIN WITH A BONUS POINT
Now in their 137th year, Park House, one of the oldest Clubs in rugby was welcomed at Burlington Fields, with the kudos of their win against the French national team, on their first ever visit to England in 1893, still famous in their history.
High flying Folkestone took on their now lowly placed opponents remembering the unforeseen defeat in the reverse fixture last November in the mud at Bromley. That day, The Stones could not cope with both the opposition and the conditions. But Park House have not won a game since last November and it was all so very different in this game when The Stones could spread their wings to run in five tries and add a bonus point.
The wind was a factor in the first half and Park exploited this well pinning The Stones back into their defensive zones. Park retained possession for most of the first quarter of the match, but Folkestone had the initiative in the set pieces and the rucks always making it difficult for the opposition to break through. ‘Scotty’ Stewart picked up an early injury and Jeremie Cowell replaced him in the back row. And another early injury to ‘Thomo’ Murray brought on Tom Snare and a reshuffle of positions.
Then Park had a sample of what was to replicate many times through the game. A clearance kick by Park set up a ruck, quickly won and distributed by Callum Palmieri with a long pass out to Jack Green on the wing and unmarked, with space to run he was far too fast to catch sprinting in to touchdown for an easy conversion to follow by Seyhan Fell. 7 – 0.
Park set up another attack when a clearance kick high and well over the touchline was blown back infield with Folkestone unprepared. A clearance kick was charged down and Liam Trinder saved a try being scored with a solid tackle. Jeremie Cowell brilliantly saved another try when he pinched the ball from the Park forward as he was diving over the line. Folkestone were racking up penalties at a disturbing rate, one attempt at the posts went astray with the wind, but when The Stones were again penalised for holding onto the ball in a tackle, the penalty was converted into 3 points for the visitors. 7-3.
Half-time, was a welcome relief for the hard-working Folkestone team as they had defended superbly against a determined opposition, helped by the elements. Now the question was whether Park could emulate this with the wind in their faces. One minute later, it was answered as Folkestone won a scrum straight from the restart – Palmieri threw it wide to John Eustace who, with a half break released Freddy Faiers on a weaving run that was too fast for hands to be laid on him as he danced through to touch down centre posts – making the additional 2 points easy. 14 – 3.
Worse was to come for Park as a few minutes later a scrum on the Folkestone 22 metre line was won by Connor Leather – Palmieri’s pass went through Jon Morton to John Eustace who crashed straight through the two man attempted tackle, ran 15 metres and Jack Green was on hand to take the pass and outsprint the defence to ease the score out to 19 – 3. Colby Hayward came on for Mat Roots who had done an hour of very concentrated and effective work for his team.
Park House struck back with the advantage of two penalties to give then field position, a 5 metre line -out a good pass - and a charge for the posts brought a converted try. 19-10. Minutes later, during a brief golden patch in which they won scrums, line-outs, penalties, rucks and mauls they forced the ball over the line on the left wing, albeit losing control of the ball in the ‘touch down’. But the scores were uncomfortably close at 19 – 15.
The retaliation was immediate from the restart when Jon Morton put through one of his grubber kicks for Freddy Faiers to seize it, sprint forward and score a try out wide. 24 – 15. Jack Green was unlucky on the right wing as Folkestone took play from a scrum on their own 15 metre line in a bewildering movement of kicking, running and passing – Jack seemed to touch it down first, but the referee gave Park the benefit of the doubt. And more bad luck came when Faiers was charging forward from another brilliantly judged kick to the line by Jon Morton, he was blatantly pushed out of his stride – out of sight of the referee. Even more frustration came within a minute as Faiers was felled with a head blow by the Park second row behind the referee’s back. Hmmm!
The answer to these tactics came quickly and decisively from Seyhan Fell who released Jack Green on another long run through space - amazingly opened for him by a tiring Park team – to end the game eventually strolling through for his hat-trick of tries and a good win for his team, converted by Callum Palmieri. 31 – 15.
The result retained The Stones second place in the promotion race with five games to go and with Bromley in close pursuit. Next week the team are away at Vigo and after that the home game against Bromley could be decisive.
Team: Thomo Murray; Freddie Faiers, Seyhan Fell (Capt.), John Eustace, Jack Green; Jon Morton, Callum Palmieri; James Archer, Connor Leather, Mat Roots; Rob Godden, Kieran Smith; Scott Stewart, Alex Price, Liam Trinder.
Subs: Tom Snare, Jeremie Cowell, Colby Hayward.
Scorers: Jack Green 5, 5, 5; Seyhan Fell 2, 2: Freddie Faiers 5, 5; Callum Palmieri 2.
Scores: Try, Green 5 – 0 (21) Conv. Fell 7 – 0 (22). Try Faiers 12 – 3 (41). Conv. Fell 14 – 3 (41) Try Green 19 – 3 (46). Try Faiers 23 – 15 (62). Try Green. 29 – 15 (75) Conv. Palmeiri 31 – 15 ( 75).
