Mustangs Vs Sevenoaks II’s – Saturday 27th January 2007

The Mustangs made their first home appearance of 2007, in what turned out to be pretty decent conditions for playing rugby.

Sevenoaks came out fired up and tried to intimidate the Maidstone pack. For a second week running though, the Maidstone forwards would be dominant in the scrums all day and also showed that they could shove the smaller Sevenoaks pack around in the driving mauls.

Much of the first half was a scrappy affair, with neither side really penetrating the opposing defence. After a slow first quarter of an hour, Maidstone began to find rhythm and started to create opportunities. For the second week running, poor execution of the final pass – combined with some dubious forward pass decisions from the official – was the main enemy of the Mustangs. It wasn’t until half an hour had passed that Maidstone were finally able to break the deadlock. The Mustangs backline attacked from just outside the Sevenoaks 22, the ball reached outside centre Alex Malejac, who proceeded to leave two defenders flat footed with a wonderful side step and race in and dive under the posts. The try was converted by Aukett. Maidstone had to resist some pressure on their own line for the rest of the half, but the defence held firm and at the break, the Mustangs led 7-0.

At half time the message was to calm things down and retain possession better, as on a number of occasions Maidstone were turned over in the first half. The message and words of encouragement from captain Ferris clearly did the trick, as what was to follow was one of the best 40 minutes that the Mustangs have put together all season.

Playing down the slope, Maidstone decided that territory would be the best way to put Sevenoaks under pressure. Glen Aukett continually found touch to the bottom corner, which meant that Sevenoaks would have to attack from deep. Maidstone were rewarded with another try 15 minutes into the second half. Continued pressure from the forwards created just enough space for scrum half James Ferris to race through a gap and dive over on the left hand side of the field, a try which went unconverted.

Soon after, Maidstone had an attacking scrum on the Sevenoaks five metre line, just to the left of the posts. Maidstone’s dominant scrum was only a few feet from the try line when the Sevenoaks scrum half decided to kick the ball out from the scrum. The ref awarded a penalty and as he did so, one of the Sevenoaks players hacked the ball 40 yards up field. The ref then decided to give a penalty try – not sure for what exactly, but it should have been given in the first place, as the forwards were robbed of a push over try. Aukett added the extras to make the score 19-0 to the Mustangs.

The fourth try of the afternoon resulted from a slightly misplaced cross field kick from Aukett on half way, but Dane Smith chased and with a salmon-like leap, collected the ball, held off the defender and off loaded the ball to ginger haired Nick Sargent, who ran in unopposed from 40 metres and touched down under the posts. Aukett added the simple conversion.

Sevenoaks, to their credit refused to give up, and continued to try and register a score. However the Mustangs were in no mood to concede any points and defended with real determination. The final try of the afternoon was rugby at its simple best, and involved the efforts of forwards and backs. Sevenoaks had the put in to the scrum 15 metres out from their own line. The Mustangs pack put in a big shove, hooker Nick East stole his third put in of the afternoon, the ball was quickly moved to the backs, who each drew the defender and passed to the next man with the ball finally ending up in the hands of winger Chris Leggatt who touched down. Aukett added the conversion and the ref blew his whistle to finish the game. The final score was 33-0 to Maidstone, 26 points being scored in a very entertaining second half.

This was a great result for the Mustangs, as Sevenoaks are a decent team. The score line mirrored that from before Christmas and just to clarify, the Mustangs played exactly the same number of first team players as they did away at Sevenoaks – none. In fact there were a few debutants in the Mustangs ranks this week. Luke Debnam had very good game at tighthead, showed good mobility for a prop and isn’t afraid to get stuck in and do the “dirty work” that a front row has to. In fact he was so committed, he lost half a tooth in the opening tackle of the game.

17 year old Piers Crompton, playing at Number 8, showed great promise and looked as if he had been part of the Mustangs all season. He was superb defensively and just as effective in attack, often staying on his feet with more than one defender trying to haul him down.

In fact the whole side played well, which makes Man of the Match a tough decision this week. Dane Smith had a great afternoon and his ability to stay on his feet in the tackle having crashed through the defence was invaluable in allowing support to arrive and enabling the Mustangs to continue their attacks. Glen Aukett dictated the second half with his tactical kicking, which meant Sevenoaks were forced to play rugby from well inside their own half. Man of the Match this week has been awarded to skipper James Ferris, who’s trade mark sniping runs from the base of rucks were a feature of the day, he was outstanding in defence and scored a good try.

Next week the Mustangs face Tunbridge Wells at The Mote and will be looking to avenge the defeat they suffered earlier in the season.

Scorers:-

Tries: Malejac, Ferris, Penalty Try, Sargent, Leggatt
Conversions: Aukett x 4

Team:

Maytum, East, Debnam, Lee, Coles, O’Brien, N Sargent, Crompton, Ferris, Aukett, Dyke, D Smith, Malejac, Leggatt, Mann, Faggetter