Match Report

Thanet Wanderers 33 v Maidstone 21    

by Trevor Langley

London League 2 South

Away at Broadstairs, Saturday 7th March, 2009, Kick Off –3.00pm

Maidstone showed their Jeckyl and Hyde character in this pulsating encounter with Thanet Wanderers. After gifting the East Kent team an early 10 point lead, and then going further behind just before half-time, they fought back admirably in the second half to cause more than a few concerns to the home side, before ultimately going down, 33-21.

While Thanet were the better all round side, Maidstone showed the skills on which they can build for the future. In the 9-10-11 axis of Craig Whitehead, Tommy King and Neil Graves, they have a strike force that can unhinge any defence, while the rest of the tyro forwards can only grow, physically and in experience, exemplified by Jack Lamb at openside, who works tirelessly against, usually, much larger opponents, to lead the defence.

Maidstone’s plans were upset in the warm up for this game when Martin Arnold had to retire to the bench after recurrence of a back injury, forcing Matt Iles into the centre and Steve Matthews to blind side, with Chris Wallis coming into the second row. This appeared to not only upset the balance of the side but, for the first 20-minutes, also their fibre, as they conceded the initiative to a Thanet side that had won three of their last four games.

With eight minutes on the clock, a simple penalty followed by a try, after a number of flowing moves by the rampant Thanet three quarter line, saw veteran Pete McCaulay touch down near the left corner. With the conversion by full back, Eldridge, establishing a ten point lead, Maidstone had few answers until Neil Graves burst through the opposition defence on his own 22 and outstripped the cover until deep in the Thanet 22. His overhead pass to Iles, outside him, five metres from the line, went astray and the chance went begging.

This lapse was immediately punished by Thanet, when a long kick back into the Maidstone half was not cleared and the ball was spun left across the line to winger, Ash, and then back inside, for centre Plumridge to score.

Maidstone fought back and, from a five-metre scrum, the ball was moved along the line for Tommy King, looping round, to force his way over, in the right hand corner, to get the Stones on the scoreboard on the half-hour.

A penalty awarded against Maidstone’s front row, saw Thanet increase their lead and, after Maidstone had once again worked their way into the Thanet half, a poor chip ahead allowed defence to be turned into attack, with full back, Eldridge, adding another seven points to the Thanet cause right on half-time.

With a 25-5 deficit and Maidstone looking bedraggled, the second half could have turned into a procession for the dominant home team. A bad cut over Ben Court’s eye, after five minutes, forced a further unhelpful revamp to the back row and the three-quarters, as Sam McPherson came on to the wing and Iles went No 8. 

But with the wind behind them in the second half, Maidstone began to chip away at the lead. Three penalties from the boot of Whitehead, concordant with the increasing probing of King and Graves, suddenly transformed the landscape and it was the Thanet team that looked insecure and hesitant with 15 minutes gone.

The decisive score came on 25 minutes, after the Thanet scrum half picked up a ball at the back of the Maidstone scrum and almost made it to the line. The inevitable was only shortly delayed and, from the next scrum, Maidstone lost the ball on their feed, and left wing Ash was put over in the corner.

Maidstone refused to give in and on 35 minutes, Graves forced his way over the line after a line out deep in the Thanet 22, with Whitehead adding the conversion to cut the deficit to nine points. A penalty for the home side widened the gap to 33-21, just before the final whistle.

While this defeat, against a marginally better Thanet side, left a bitter taste, the injury to Craig Whitehead, deep into injury time, may prove to have a more lasting impact, as his experience, both at full back and scrum half, has been one of the major gains in the second half of the season.

Team

Sam Bailey (Mark Thurgood 70 mins); Sam Rogers; Luke Debnam: Andy Bacon; Chris Wallis; Steve Matthews: Jack Lamb; Ben Court (Sam McPherson 45 mins): Craig Whitehead (Martin Arnold 80 mins); Tommy King: Gareth Hill; Neil Graves; Matt Iles; James Sullivan: Tom Searles