Under 10's v Canterbury and Whitstable

A full squad turnout for the Under 10’s and two pitches being made available after some much appreciated juggling of space by Hannah (Mini’s co-ordinator) resulted in our being able to host two Canterbury sides and one from Whitstable for some long awaited competitive matches . There were nine matches played in total, involving approximately 60 Under 10’s in good conditions with some welcome sunshine.

Folkestone split into two even sides but we’ll call them ‘A’ and ‘B’ for the sake of simplicity. Teams as follows:

A: Lewis Hammerton, Toby Walton, Kieran Dorrell, Thomas Cloke, Tristan Parmenter, Alfie Dove, Billy Evans, Leon Gurr, Miles Gray, Ben Povah, Jos Marnham, Ethan Murray and Ethan Holt.

B: Cohen Double, Tom Kedwell, Archie Green, Cameron Brown, Thomas Reina, Kian Supple, TJ Leather, Joseph Faiers, Ronan Whelan, Dominic Bowden, Megan Pickering, Ryan Adams.

This correspondent assisted the B’s for the majority of the morning and only managed a few snatches of the A’s matches so a very sketchy match report.

The A’s suffered from the early kick-off syndrome in their first match and lost to a Whitstable side that passed the ball extremely well and used the width of the pitch to their advantage, Folkestone scored two good tries through Thomas Cloke and Miles Gray but didn’t get into their stride and lost by seven tries to two.

The B’s were up against Canterbury A (again Canterbury using A + B for simplicity) and clicked into gear straight away with a hard fought one-all draw, Thomas Reina with Folkestone’s score.

Stones A’s played Canterbury A next and matched the B’s previous draw but doubled the try tally with a two try all result, Stone’s tries from Toby Walton and a second of the day for Thomas Cloke.

The B’s were involved in a tight match with Whitstable. Whitstable took the lead but Folkestone pressed for pretty much the entirety of the rest of the match and were unlucky not to equalise when a Folkestone try was disallowed for a “double movement“ when the ball looked to have been grounded on the try line at the first attempt – a discussion between referee and Folkestone coaches before a decision was made resulted in the try being disallowed – we’re an honest bunch!! We were pleased that the referee (from Whitstable) took the time to bring all the players together to explain (and demonstrate) exactly what had happened – good refereeing much appreciated. A good game and an unlucky loss by one try to nil.

The A’s played Canterbury B last and I managed to catch the back end of this match which was won by three tries without reply by Canterbury, this was a little flattering from what I saw as Folkestone were on top for most of the second half and just couldn’t finish their attacks off due to some determined last gasp defending from the visitors. Canterbury’s final try was a fortunate bobble of the ball to a very quick Canterbury player who got into his stride and ran the ball the full length of the pitch to score. Canterbury were under a lot of pressure at that stage and if Folkestone’s possession had earned a try instead of Canterbury getting the break the result might have been reversed, unlucky Stones.

The B’s final match was against Canterbury B and Folkestone won by five tries to three. Stones tries were from Cohen Double (2), Thomas Reina (2) and Joseph Faiers. This was an excellent performance by all the B’s, strong in defence and attack and everyone playing their part.

An excellent and thoroughly enjoyable morning of Under 10’s rugby. Big improvements in all aspects of play, well done all Folkestone Under 10’s.