FRFC 54 Eastbourne 5

Today’s opponents, Eastbourne, are a team in transition. Only one of today's team played for their 1st XV last season. Folkestone have been through the same process in recent seasons and now the young Stones are beginning to realise their potential. Coach, Darren Molloy, nearing the end of his 2nd season with the club is building a good squad of players, most of whom who have come through the club's junior system. Added to that he has many good young juniors coming through the Folkestone Rugby Academy and the club's youth section and he has plans for his youngsters to play together in a Development XV next season in one of the senior leagues. Of today's 18 man squad 13 are home produced. The majority of the current 1st XV squad have been playing together for over 10 years and they have formed a special bond. I'm confident that Molloy and his coaching team, Steve Milward, Leigh Fitchie and Tom Johnson can lead these youngsters to success. But that's in the future.
So let's talk about what happened today. After 10 minutes of skirmishing Folkestone took the lead with a typical Adam Tolman move. He took a quick tap penalty on the Eastbourne 22 and drove for the line making 3 dummy passes on his way. Half the Eastbourne team and the majority of supporters were back int he clubhouse looking for the ball! Yes an exaggeration but it was wonderful rugby. Jon Morton added the conversion. 7-0.
5 minutes later Stones scored their second try. This time from a scrum which saw the ball passed out to Richard Lama who offloaded to Michal Krizanek and the big Czech made no mistake from 10 metres out. Morton converted again. 14-0.
Eastbourne were causing problems for themselves by repeatedly kicking the ball clear from their 22 and the ball was going straight to well positioned home backs who simply ran the ball back to the Eastbourne 22. Young centre Chris Petley made some especially incisive runs through the Eastbourne defence and the visitors found it almost impossible to stop him. Petley is not the biggest player but he packs a mighty punch as he breaks the gain line and in defence he is fearless. The wet conditions didn’t favour quick passing moves but whenever the Folkestone backs built up momentum it looked like just a matter of time until the next home try. But it took until just before half time for Folkestone’s next score. The reason? Penalties, Folkestone conceded far too many penalties. A better team than Eastbourne would have taken full advantage of all these penalties.
Folkestone’s latest signing, Nick Ford increased the score with a superb solo try as he danced through the visiting defence. Morton added his third conversion. 21-0.
Folkestone’s next score in the 58th minute was a beauty with Lama piercing the Eastbourne defence and passing to Trevor Squire who drove into the Eastbourne 22 returning the ball to Lama who then found Jak Cox who gleefully took the 5 points. 26-0.
The next score saw Cox taking the ball from the halfway line. He had support all the way to the try line but didn’t need it cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxf@~ZX|||||||||||||||||| for a great solo score. This season Cox has played hooker, scrum half and now winger. He may well have found his position. In many games this season Folkestone have butchered great scoring opportunities but Cox always seems to make the right move and he did so here again. Morton found his kicking boots again to convert. 33-0.
Having earned the bonus point for scoring 4 tries Folkestone seemed to lose concentration and Eastbourne took advantage working the ball firstly from left wing to right wing before moving the ball back to the left wing where they had an overlap. 33-5.
Right from the restart Folkestone powered down the pitch for a trademark Lama try as he burst through the defence. Morton added the bonus. 40-5.
The next try came after good interplay between Lama and Squire before the ball go to Tolman to score. Morton added the conversion. 47-5.
In the final move of the match Jon Morton crashed through into the 22 before a splendid offload to Ben Page who scored between the posts. Morton converted. 54-5.
Folkestone were dominant in this match but they will have to sharpen up when they take on league leaders, Crowborough on Saturday. The Sussex team are winning games by cricket scores so if Folkestone want to stay in the promotion race they have to beat Crowborough. Given favourable weather conditions the game next Saturday could be a classic. Crowborough will start as favourites but this season Folkestone are unbeaten at home and with a big support behind them I wouldn’t bet against them.
Today’s Man of the Match for me was a choice of 3 players – Jon Morton, Will Massey and Chris Petley. I’m going for Petley. Off the pitch he could be described almost as cherubic. But when he crosses the white line he becomes a fearless warrior. He tackles like a lion and today he made many fine runs always going over the gain line so setting up good attacks for his colleagues. I was also very impressed with the Folkestone pack. They played well together and provided the all-important platform for the backs to work their magic. Young lock forwards, Tim Naylor and Charlie Willams both played very well and Moose Murray, despite his inexperience, played very well in the front row.

Squad:
R Lama, M Murray, W Massey, M Roots, P Williamson, C Williams, T Naylor, R Hudson, M Krizanek, J Johnson, A Tolman, N Ford, B Brooks, C Petley, J Cox, J Morton, T Squire, B Page