In the first friendly of the season Folkestone U12’s played against a combined Ash and Whitstable (AW) side

U12’s Rugby Folkestone against Ash and Whitstable U12’s
Sunday 21st September 2014. Report by Andy Parmenter.

In the first friendly of the season Folkestone U12’s played against a combined Ash and Whitstable (AW) side, who had joined forces for the day as both sides are short on numbers and wouldn’t be able to play matches. It does seem that this age group is suffering from low numbers across the county and Folkestone could also do with new players. If your children are interested in playing please contact the Club on 01303 266887.

After the teams had warmed up and run some training drills, the first game kicked off with the home side electing to receive the kick. Folkestone looked to play the ball and continued to string phases together and passed the ball well with Cameron Brown and TJ Leather to the fore. Good cover defence from the visitors prevented tries as did handling errors, however the rugby was attractive to watch. Fly Half Tristan Parmenter started to take the ball forward and pass the ball to players in space. The ball was passed to Max Pavitt who broke forward and set up a position which enabled Folkestone to pressure the AW try line. In the last minute of the first half an AW player failed to roll away from the tackle and conceded a penalty about 10 metres from their line. A quick pass from the penalty found Lewis Hammerton running a good line into space to score the opening try.

After half time, Ash Whitstable came back strongly and started to compete more at the breakdowns and the match became more even. However whenever AW stared to threaten the Folkestone try line, good tackles were put in by Alfie Dove and Dominic Bowden. With an adjustment to the body positions – getting lower and using the shoulder to push - the Folkestone maul started to drive forward and from a maul Kieran Dorrell stole AW ball and powered over the line.

The home side continued to attack with good support coming from Kian Supple in the new for this year position of Number 8. Kian Supple read the play well and helped the link the forwards and backs. AW continued to play there part with some good passing moves but strong defence and the ability of Kieran Dorrell and Tristan Parmenter to turnover ball at the breakdown ensured their moves broke down. Folkestone were put under pressure by a great clearing kick from AW but fine defensive work by full back Leon Gurr and TJ Leather enabled the danger to be averted.

After a short break and cool down period, another match was played with a few positional changes to allow the players to develop different skills. Ash and Whitstable started strongly but Folkestone made use of their chance in attack with Brown crossing for his second following good breaks by Ryan Adams and Tom Cloke.

An AW line out was stolen by Tristan Parmenter and Tom Cloke broke forward in his second sniping run of the match. His earlier effort ended just short of the line and his stretch just wasn’t long enough to touch the ball down. When Tom Cloke was tackled the ball was quickly recycled and Joseph Faiers, who had generally been well marshalled by the defence, scored. Following good tight forward work by Ethan Holt, Folkestone launched another attack in the last play of the game and a powerful leg drive by Cameron Brown took him through a couple of tackles to score his second try.

Overall this was a fine team performance by Folkestone who played some superb rugby. Today’s effort should set them up for next week’s festival at Canterbury.

Team: Leon Gurr, TJ Leather, Joseph Faiers, Cameron Brown, Max Pavitt, Tristan Parmenter, Tom Cloke, Lewis Hammerton, Kieran Dorrell, Dominic Bowden, Alfie Dove, Ethan Holt, Ryan Adams, Kian Supple.