Mustangs Vs Old Dunstonians – 19th April 2008

After a long season, the Mustangs saved their best performance of 2007/8 until the final game, with a comprehensive thumping of Old Dunstonians.

Playing on the bottom pitch, which thankfully had dried out considerably from the week before, the Mustangs scoring spree began as early as the 1st minute. 17 debutant Tom Castle charged down an attempted clearance kick, Maidstone recovered the ball and once passed to fly half for the day, Neil Graves, he went on one of his trademark runs and bulldozed his way to the line. Jamie Smith converted. This early score set the tone for the half, as the Mustangs scored a point a minute though-out the half. Due to the amount of action that took place, it is hard to recount in what order people scored, but there were some fantastic tries scored with support play and handling (which had often been the sides Achilles Heel) of the highest standard on display.

The “Gravy Train” was operating at full steam and Neil was responsible for instigating most of the attacks. Tom Castle scored having supported Graves and ran in from 30 metres to open his Mustangs scoring account. With Nick Taylor providing a solid foundation at the base of the scrum, the Mustangs produced some well worked moves, one in particular involving Taylor picking up from the base of the scrum, feeding to scrum half Mark Graves (who was making a welcome return to playing rugby after having a break of almost 2 years) and with an overlap created fed the ball to winger Ben McKellar, who had the easy job of finishing off one of his 3 tries.

Gareth Hill continued to impress, and he set up Ian Lee’s first league try of the year, having made a fine break along the left wing before feeding back inside to Lee and leaving him a clear sprint to the try line, though Horse did do his best to get held up.

The first half finished 41-5 to Maidstone.

Not long into the 2nd half and the free scoring Mustangs continued the pattern of the first half. Nick Taylor opened the 2nd half scoring and further tries followed from Ash, Hill, McKellar and David Tugwell. The highlight of the 2nd half tries was undoubtedly McKellar’s hatrick score, with some outstanding handling and changes of running lines from his supporting team mates and Ben received the ball back to run in from the 22 line.

Unfortunately due to injuries, the scrums had to go uncontested and from this point onward the Mustangs lost their edge and concentration to a degree and Dunstonians came back to score a couple of deserved tries. The final whistle blew, the final score being 72-15 to the Mustangs.

This was a fantastic way to sign off what has been overall a very good season for the 2nd team. All credit to OD’s for never giving up.

Man of the Match – this is far too difficult to give to one person, so its going to the whole team, as every single player contributed on the day. The scrum was as solid as usual and Dan Cummings and Ian Lee dominated at the lineout (Nick East achieved his 85% successful lineout throw benchmark figure).

Player of the Year Darren Yates was at his rampaging best and added the odd pirouette for good measure. Dan Cummings had an outstanding game and was seen popping up everywhere, as was Tom Castle, who showed that he is more than capable of playing at 2nd team level. Nick Taylor, despite not playing for a month, has shown how well he has grown into the Number 8 position this year, and his powerful running from the base of the scrum was a feature of the afternoon.

It was a pleasure to welcome Mark Graves back to the club and he put in a very competent performance at scrum half. Neil Graves did what he does best – terrified the opposition – but he also showed some great distribution skills from his new position of fly half.

The centre pairing of Jamie Smith and Sam Rogers caused chaos in the midfield, both picking superb lines of running. The back three trio of Hill, Ash and McKellar all got on the scoresheet, Ben in particular had an great day, scoring a hatrick and only once did his shorts stop him from holding onto the ball.

Tuggy and Lurch also played.

Div of the Day – there were some post match nominations, namely Gareth Hill for doing his Napolean Dynamite dancing impression and Scott Mitchell for his emotional acceptance of his signed Maidstone shirt. Martin Maytum had to be carried off the pitch having been “snipered” from one of the trees surrounding the bottom pitch. The award however goes to a man who carried on despite receiving his worst injury of the season. Mark Thurgood arrived at The Mote on Saturday sporting a wonderful black eye, which was obtained when momentum threw him off a water slide too quickly into the side of a swimming pool whilst on holiday last week. Well played Thurgs.

So, season over and once again 2nd place in the league, finishing 3 points behind champions Beckenham, which although disappointing considering the side was undefeated until Christmas, still is a great result, especially when you take into consideration over 70 players made a Mustangs league appearance this year. However the Mustangs is not only about results – development of players is also an important aspect and with the number of youngsters that have featured this year, they will have learned some valuable lessons and experience from playing senior rugby. Finally though, the most important thing is that everyone has fun and for the majority of the time, people have played with a smile on their face.

Despite at times being naive, and the majority of the time inept, skipper Nick East did a good job of skippering for the first time. It is not an easy task and is far more time consuming than some people realise. Well done SC. Shaun Neaves took over the coaching reigns from Andy Golding early on in the year and helped keep up the standards that Andy set the previous year. He has had his memorable moments, especially the half time rant at Beckenham – cheers for your efforts Neavsey and I’m sure all the guys will be looking forward to some pre-season “Gladiator” style training (please leave the Space Invaders one at home).

Catherine Grundy, the 2nd team physio, did a great job keeping the players on the field this year – cheers Catherine.

So that is that for this year, the final instalment of Mustang reports – I hope they have been informative yet entertaining. See you in 2008/9

Team:-

Thurgood, East, Maytum, Yates, Lee, Cummings, Castle, Taylor, M Graves, N Graves, Hill,

J Smith, Rogers, McKellar, Ash, Tugwell, Maddaford

Scorers:-

Tries:- Graves, J Smtih x 2, McKellar x 3, Lee, Castle, Taylor, Ash, Hill, Tugwell

Conversions:- J Smith x 3, Ash, Hill x 2

Coach – Shaun Neaves; Physio – Catherine Grundy; Manager – Laurence Waters