Old Dunstonians II vs Mustangs – 22nd September 2007

The Mustangs embarked on their 3rd away game in a row to take on an Old Dunstonian side full of confidence following their comprehensive win over Tunbridge Wells the previous week.

Maidstone got off to a terrible start, conceding a try inside 5 minutes, with Dunstonians scoring in the right corner, following some swift handling which left Maidstone short of defenders. The try went unconverted. However, Maidstone reacted well and with their first spell inside the Dunstonians twenty two, turned over a Dunstonians lineout and Dan Cummings drove over the line from ten metres to touch down. Mike Laurenson converted. Maidstone embarked on another foray into Dunstonian territory, and a penalty awarded to Maidstone was kicked to the corner by Craig Whitehead. The resulting lineout was secured well by Maidstone, and despite some initial resistance from the home side, the Mustangs pack set up an excellent drive which resulted in Nick Coles being driven over to score his third try of the season. The conversion fell short, but the Mustangs led 12 – 5.

Dunstonians then put the pressure right back on the Mustangs, and used their big forwards to punch holes through the midfield defence. The Mustangs sat back in defence and invited pressure upon themselves, which led to Dunstonians being able to execute a well worked backs move which saw the outside centre run in under the posts from 20 metres, virtually unopposed and with an easy conversion, the scored were levelled at 12 apiece. To their credit, the Mustangs didn’t let their heads drop and they executed a well worked move themselves. Maidstone were awarded a lineout just inside the Dunstonians half. Josh Pankhurst collected the ball on a front peel and with the blind side left open, he sprinted 45 metres and just evaded the covering tacklers to dive over in the left hand corner for a superb try. The conversion was missed, but Maidstone once again had the lead.

The next score of the game was reminiscent of the famous Campese pass to no one in the 3rd test of the 1989 Lions Tour – unfortunately a mix up between Mike Laurenson and James Ferris, with Ferris being “Campo” for the day and passing to nobody in particular near the Maidstone line allowing the Dunstonians winger to win the race to the ball and touch down. The home side’s fly half converted to make the score 19 – 17 to Dunstonians at half time.

Once again, Maidstone got off to a terrible start at the beginning of the half. Dan Cummings collected the ball comfortably from the kick-off, but support was extremely slow to  arrive and the ball was turned over, passed to the Dunstonians fly-half who slotted a sweetly struck drop goal to make the score 21 – 17.

Maidstone to their credit then began to produce some good rugby, but once again were haunted by poor decision making or a final error which denied scoring chances. The Mustangs has a 15 minute period camped inside the Dunstonians third of the pitch, but conspired to muck up every scoring chance they had. Finally however, they redeemed themselves, though it was due to a good scrum on the opposition put in, 5 meters from the Dunstonian line. Nick East managed to steal the put-it, the Mustangs pack drove forward and Josh Pankhurst had the easy job of falling on the ball to score. Craig Whitehead skimmed the outside of the posts with his conversion attempt from wide out, but nonetheless Maidstone had levelled the scores at 22 – 22.

Having endured so much pressure from Maidstone, the home side decided it was their turn to turn the screw. Maidstone didn’t help themselves at all, giving away silly penalties which allowed the home side to pile on the pressure. Maidstone survived two very close calls (one of which should have been given a try), but just about survived. However, with only seconds left on the clock, Nick East gave away a needless, kickable penalty. Fortunately the main kicker was off the field, and the attempt by the reserve kicker went wide and that was the end of the action for the afternoon, in what was a very entertaining, if somewhat frustrating game to watch. Maidstone felt that they should have won, but having heard the home side talking afterwards, they felt the same, so perhaps a draw was a fair result.

Notable performances this week came from Craig Whitehead, who had a very good game, especially kicking from hand, on his first game of the year, Aidan Bailey once again was solid in defence and posed a threat with ball in hand. However the stand out performance came from Josh Pankhurst, who apart from scoring two tries and carried the ball forward well all game, had a much improved game in defence – so this week Josh is the Man of the Match.

Going forward, the Mustangs will need to improve on quite a few areas, but mainly their decision making as individuals and as a unit. Too many times on a Saturday was a high ball allowed to bounce which led to unnecessary pressure being put on the team. Once again the Mustangs were unable to convert very clear cut opportunities, which definitely needs addressing. However, week by week the performances are improving – for instance the rucking was awesome this week (following a good session on Thursday with Neavsey), and proved a point that if everyone makes the effort to train and work on aspects of their game which are lacking, their own as well as the team performances will improve. If the Mustangs can show the same commitment to the cause when in attack as they showed in defending for their lives for the last 15 minutes, then good things will happen for this side.

On a sad note, the Dunstonian game marked the final game for sometime for Nick “The Codfather” Coles, who has defied all odds and gained a place at Nottingham Trent University.

Team:-

Sam Bailey, Nick East, Simon Hollister, Nick Coles, Dan Cummings, Ian Lee, Luke Day, Josh Pankhurst, James Ferris, Craig Whitehead, Gav Dyke, Aidan Bailey, Phil Catt, Ben Mckellar, Mike Laurenson, Jack Lamb.

Coach: Andy Golding

Physio: Catherine Grundy

Manager: Laurence Waters

Scorers:

Tries: Cummings, N Coles, Pankhurst x 2

Conversion: Laurenson x 1