Dover 18 FRFC 5

A Folkestone win in this fixture would have seen them replace their hosts at the top of this league. Alas it was not to be. Dover won the toss and elected to receive facing the sun, Dover had asked via the ref to use all four of their subs & in the spirit of rugby sportsmanship Folkestone agreed even though they only had one at the time, ( this went to two when Jon Harrison arrived ).

The whole game was played within a very tight parameter, for the first half this was largely between the Folkestone twenty two and the half way line, mainly between the two packs with both sets of backs having some determined darts in to the defensive lines of the opposition. Jordan Godden and Rob Gardner worked well at nine and ten to get runners over the gain line often just lacking the numbers in support to control the ball in the contact areas.

Dover’s pack were extremely effective at the break down and in the rolling mauls, Folkestone got to grips with this later in the game but looked surprised by it early on, a slow start was replaced by some gutsy determination, Alex Box & Del McDonough working well to disrupt the Home sides play.

The break in the score line came late in the second half and was the first time the home side had actually broken the Stones defence.

The second half arrived and injuries were testament to the physicality of the first half, Ben Stringer ( ankle ) was clearly not going to make it to the final whistle and some team reshuffles were called for, Simon Petts moved to 8 and Young Liam Purdy was brought over from the wing to play at blindside. The Stones pack were having much more of the scrum at this stage and spent a considerable amount of time well within easy striking distance of the Dover try line.

Tony Bass had to leave the field due to illness ( chest infection ) and Liam Purdy now moved into second row ( how the rookie winger loved it I’m sure ) and Mickey Attia moved to back row.

Dover kicked a number of penalties in the second half, some of which we disagreed with quite strongly but were scored anyway !

Stones finally broke through with some great ruining by Dan Sangiuseppe and Rob Gardner, with Rob going over, the try was unconverted.

Shortly after the Dover scrum was crumpled by Ed Funnel, Alex Box & Harry Paton, They scrambled the ball to their Number eight who was hit by Del McDonough who started his celebrations after forcing the ball down, the ref thought otherwise and deemed it placed down by the Home side.

A tough game, played in the right spirit, I can see why Dover are sitting top of that league, However, Looking at how the Stones side has played this season so far I know we could beat them with a little more depth to our squad.

Team;
Dan Sangiuseppe, Tom Nunn, Jon Harrison, Liam Purdy, Mickey Attia, Rob Gardner, Jordan Godden, Cai App Bryn, Harry Patton, Alex Box, Ed Funnell, Tony Bass, Rob Jackson, Simon Petts, Ben Stringer, Del McDonough, Jamie Curtis.