Mustangs Vs Tonbridge Juddians 2nd XV

A strong Mustangs side entertained Tonbridge Juddians at The Mote last Saturday, looking to out in a good performance following last week’s disappointing defeat by Thanet.

As was the case last week, the Mustangs started strongly in constant attack, which eventually resulted in Faulkner being put into space on the left wing and sprinting in from Juddians 22 yard line to score in the corner. A second try was scored soon after, from a well worked forward’s move seeing Neil Smitherman put clear in the five metre channel just inside the Juddians half, and take off on a typical barnstorming run, brushing aside a hesitant defender, who clearly wasn’t interested in getting in the number 8’s path, and diving over in the left corner.

The Mustangs soon lost John O’Brien to injury, and was replaced by Ian Lee, but the change didn’t prevent the Mustangs from continuing to exert pressure on the Juddian’s defence. A third try came from a driving maul which started 10 metres from TJ’s line, Nick East emerging from a pile of bodies to claim the try. A fourth try came from the ensuing restart, as the French maestro Alex Malejac, embarked on a mesmeric run from well inside his own half, beating many would be tacklers before out sprinting what was left of the TJ’s defence to score a magnificent solo try in the right hand corner of the field.

Instead of maintaining their advantage against a stunned Juddian’s team, the Mustangs switched off and moved away from what had been a successful formula of ball retention, discipline and structure and for forty minutes either side of half time, conspired to knock on, misplace passes and lose their shape. It was a very frustrating period for the sizeable crowd that was watching, as they expected a continued onslaught by the Mustangs. During this period the crowd witnessed forwards kicking, forwards feigning to kick and then going on a run.

Eventually the Mustangs found their shape again and applied considerable pressure to the TJ’s defence. Further scores were added by Smitherman, Sargent and Ferris. Despite being in the ascendancy, it was the Mustangs who were the unfortunate team to suffer a man being sent to the sin bin – Sam Johnston harshly carded for pulling down a maul – harsh because he had the ball and was trying to get to ground. So the Mustangs played the last 10 minutes with 14 men, but this did not prevent them for finishing the day off with two well worked tries down the left, where overlaps were created and the tries finished by Deissner and finally Faulkner finished the game off with a flamboyant dive under the posts. The final try led to the one and only conversion of the afternoon by Alex Malejac.

In the end it was a very comfortable victory for the Mustangs, the final score being 47-0.

There were many good performances to mention this week, Jon Faulkner for his 2 well taken tries, Neil Smitherman stood out once again for his all round display but the Man of the Match this week was awarded to Alex Malejac, who not only scored possibly the best solo try that will be scored this season (though he almost bettered this in the second half), as he was a threat every time he had the ball in hand and was solid in defence all afternoon.

Scorers:-

Tries:

Faulkner (2)
Smitherman (2)
East
Malejac
Ferris
Deissner
Sargent

Conversions:
Malejac

Squad: Jeffery, East (Farbrace), Walker, Johnson, O’Brien (Lee), Sergant, Taylor, Smitherman, Ferris (Capt), Mann, Leggatt, Malejac, Deissner, Faulkner, Wilford

Andy Golding (Coach) Laurence Waters (Manager), Wendy Edwards (Physio)