Gillingham 2nd XV 14 FRFC 3rd XV 12

The thirds turned up at Folkestone but after a few late changes and filling of spaces in the line, we travelled to Gillingham. Simon Petts was not available to play and so Chris D-B took charge of his second game at captain.
We arrived at Gillingham with a great team considering the late shuffling of players. We won the toss and decided to receive first to get first possession. The first kick off was caught by Ben Stringer who charged up the field with support and finally got taken down on their 10 metre line. It was clear it was going to be a day of tough rucking and mauling and Folkestone finally got the ball away to the backs. After a few more skirmishes Gillingham turned the ball over, they then kicked the ball up field. We returned with a short kick, which was caught by their 15 who ran it up field with support. Their no.14 finally put the ball over the try line. They managed to convert the try to take them 7-0 up. After some more good play from both sides and being told by the referee to hold the initial push as their hooker was new to adults we managed to start getting the ball out faster, which eventually released Tom Nunn to put the ball over the try line. Folkestone didn’t manage to convert the try, so the score was 7-5 in Gillingham’s favour. The Folkestone team worked hard to bring back the deficit but were unsuccessful in the first half.
The second half saw Folkestone being more aggressive and with the ok from the referee started to really take charge of the scrum, which lead to them only winning 4 of their scrums in the second half. The lineouts were also causing trouble for Gillingham all through the match due to newcomer Glen in at second row. The Folkestone backs also picked up their game and started taking the ball more furiously into Gillingham’s defensive line. This put Folkestone 15 yards from Gillingham’s try line, which enabled Jordon Godden to take a quick penalty and run a perfect line to put the ball over for Folkestone. This try was converted and left the score being 7-12 to Folkestone. Folkestone had 15 minutes of the second half and work hard to keep the points going in Folkestone’s favour. But unfortunately Gillingham managed to put another score over in the last 8 minutes of the game to tie the match with it all resting on whether they would get the conversion. As their no.10 took his kick, we all watch but unfortunately it came off a post and then through the uprights (luckily for them), leaving the score at 14-12 to Gillingham and even though Folkestone worked tirelessly to get the vital points for the win it ended with Gillingham winning the game by 2 points.

Team: Williamson, CDB, White, Glen, Bass, Box, Stringer, Del, Godden, Tash, Keating, Petley, Nunn, Cai, Slater and Arnott