Evergreen Cup, The Mote, 29 October 2006
Maidstone 47 – 20 Tunbridge Wells

Tries: Massey 2, Hogarth, Moore 2, Watson, Baxter
Cons: Laurenson 3
Pens: Laurenson 2

Maidstone marked their debut in the Evergreen Cup – in which players must be
over 35 years old to qualify - with an impressive seven try display in a high
scoring game against Tunbridge Wells at the Mote.

After some scrappy opening exchanges, the home side opened the scoring when No. 8 Paul Massey burst on to a loose  throw from the Tunbridge Wells hooker and outpaced the defence with a forty yard dash to the line. Laurenson narrowly missed the conversion to leave Maidstone 5-0 up after five minutes.

It didn’t take Tunbridge Wells long to hit back with a well worked score of their own. After winning quick ball deep in their own half, the Tunbridge Wells backs exploited an overlap to break down the right touchline. The Maidstone defence was unable to reorganise quickly enough and the visitor’s scrum half dived over from the edge of the resulting ruck to level the score. The conversion was missed.

The try seemed to shock the home side into action and Maidstone soon found themselves back in the Tunbridge Wells half. Maidstone’s second score of the game was an excellent team try which gave Massey his second of the afternoon. The forwards won quick ball on the ten metre line, and the Maidstone backs combined powerful running with some excellent offloads to set up a ruck on the five metre line. The pack arrived quickly to clear out the defenders and the ball was spun wide for Massey to crash over in the right corner. Laurenson missed the conversion to leave the score 10-5.

This time Maidstone were determined not to let the visitors straight back into the game and looked after the ball well, keeping play in the opposition half. With half an hour played, Laurenson added a penalty to extend the lead when the referee reversed a penalty after opposition No. 8 reacted angrily to some trademark Tugwell footwork at a breakdown. Tunbridge Wells soon pegged back the lead with a penalty of their own when Maidstone were penalised at a break-down in front of their own posts.

With five minutes left before the break, Maidstone scored their third of the afternoon with another well taken try. With the visitors again infringing at the break down, Tugwell caught the defence napping with a quick tap penalty and combined well with Moore before Hogarth went over in the left corner.
Laurenson converted to leave the score 20-8 at half time.

With the second half just a few minutes old, Maidstone seemed to have put the game out of sight when Moore showed great pace to skirt around the visitor’s defence down the right touchline and score by the posts. Laurenson landed his second conversion of the afternoon to make it 27-8.

Tunbridge Wells then hauled themselves back into the game with a try either side of a Laurenson penalty. The first came just two minutes after Moore’s try looked to have ended the game as a contest. Tunbridge Wells won the ball on the Maidstone ten metre line and the home defence was caught short of numbers on
the left allowing the opposition winger over for an unconverted score.

The visitors then hauled themselves to within ten points when they were gifted another score by poor Maidstone defence. Several Maidstone players were guilty of missing first up tackles as the visitors powered into the 22 before the Tunbridge Wells outside centre crossed for a try which was converted to make it
30-20 with half an hour still to play. The stern talking to delivered by their captain seemed to galvanise the home side as this was this was the last time they were to find themselves under their own posts.

Maidstone soon put their sloppy start to the second half behind them with their fifth try of the afternoon when centre Richard Watson crashed over from ten metres out from a first phase move.

The home side were then reduced to fourteen men for ten minutes when Tom Challis received the first yellow card in a long career of walking the line. However, the visitors were unable to make anything of there numerical advantage and score remained 35-20 until Challis returned.

Maidstone were beginning to dominate every aspect of the game and it was only a question of how big the margin of victory would be. The sixth try of the afternoon went to outside centre Dominic Baxter, who was on hand to finish of another well worked team move. Laurenson slotted his third conversion of the afternoon to make it 42-20.

The final score of the afternoon went to Eugene Moore, who’s pace troubled the Tunbridge Wells defence throughout the game. After being put away down the right touchline, Moore was tackled ten metres out. He placed the ball back for the ever present Paul Massey to pick and go. In a flash, Moore was back on his feet
to collect the return pass from Massey and cross for his second of the afternoon.

Final Score 47-20.

Maidstone: Laing (Capt), Wright, Thurgood, Fish, Maddaford, Coleman, Challis,
Massey, Tugwell, Hogarth, Watson, Baxter, Mattison, Moore, Laurenson, Gray,
Walker, Vincent