FRFC 20 Gillingham Anchorians 20

By Steve Hughes

For a change this game was played in the dry with a little sunshine but
with a strong wind. Both teams were evenly matched but Folkestone needed to bounce back after narrowly losing to Sheppey in their last outing.
Darren Molloy's side was a mixture of new players and and a
re-shuffling of positions. Young George Flatman made his debut and at
eighteen years of age showed a maturity that is likely to keep him in
the side for some time. He is a large lump of a lad adding that extra
weight to the pack yet is mobile around the park and quite prepared to
do his share of the grafting. Luciano Dublino made his first start for
the Club on the wing before moving into the centre in the second half.
The other youngster who impressed me was Tom Carvill with his
bullocking runs and crunching tackles.
Folkestone opended the score with a delightful move initiated by Mike
Gardner from the back of a maul, to feed 'Moose'Murray. He drove forward up the wing to draw the full back and put Dublino away for his first score for the Club. No conversion. 5 - 0. Bradley Pearson then added a to increase the lead 8 - 0.
Gillingham got off the mark with a penalty before the home side
increased their lead with a strike against the head in the scrum to see
Ritchie Bowen break away and take the ball into the visitors 22 metre
area. From a loose maul Jak Cox dived over near the corner but Pearson
could not make the conversion. 13 - 3.
Pearson got the crowd excited with a sprint up the wing but was driven
into touch near the corner flag. Tim Wood - another youngster who has
kept his place in the senior side by sheer hard graft - also had a run
with try scoring potential but was dragged down short. Half time score
13 - 3.
The mauls were being fought without asking any quarter but it appeared
at this point that Folkestone were edging the scrums. The line outs were even with young Flatman doing his fair share.
Gillingham then fought their way into the Folkestone corner and winning
the line out carried out a series of rolling mauls which took them
across to the home posts. A pick up and dive over saw the visitors
reduce the deficit and the successful conversion took the score to 13 -
10. John Eustace was his usual no nonsense crash tackling self and Chris Petley as his partner in the centre covered an enormous amount of ground in defence.
The forwards were giving their all and drives by Carvill, Bowen, both
George and Ben Flatman took the ball up to the Gills line where one of
the visiting forwards was shown the yellow card. A scrum on the visitors
line ended in a loose maul from which Ben Flatman crossed the line to
score and Pearson added the two points. 20 - 10.
Time was getting on at this point and Gillingham needed to score twice
and the spectators were beginning to breathe a little easier. However
the visitors were not done yet and a missed tackle out wide by
Folkestone saw the left wing sweep around the defence and pass inside
when confronted by the full back to end up with a score under the posts
which was converted to reduce the deficit to three points.
The game had been a stop start affair right from the start with the
referee strictly interpreting the laws when perhaps he could have
allowed the game to flow a little better. At this point of the game
there seems to be only seconds between blasts of the whistle. Folkestone then substituted their two props with Aaron Robbins (another youngster with potential) and Pat Smith joining the fray.
Frantic defending by Folkestone in the dying minutes was not enough to
give them a win they really deserved when Gillingham were awarded a
penalty in front of the posts which saw them draw the game 20 - 20.
This was a good performance by Folkestone with, as I said, a mixed side
from that normally seen but the spirit is right and the determination is evident. Things just didn't go their way this week but with the
potential they have and with the number of youngsters coming through the ranks they can look forward to the rest of the season with confidence.
Man of the Match was a difficult choice and this week I would like to
nominate two - Ritchie Bowen from the forwards and Chris Petley in the
threequarters.