Mustangs Vs Thurrock II’s – Saturday 24th November 2007

The Mustangs were due to play Lordswood 2’s in the Invicta League, however with Lordswood withdrawing from the competition, a friendly was arranged with Essex side Thurrock. The Mustangs had been comprehensively beaten by Thurrock the previous season and Thurrock, like the Mustangs, were top of their league. So a good challenge lay ahead for the Maidstone side.

Due to the 1st team losing 5 players over the course of Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning, some re-jigging of the team took place, but a competitive side took the field nonetheless.

From the start, the Mustangs played some of the most fluent rugby they had played all season, keeping the ball alive well, passing out of the tackle to keep the attack going. However, the final pass often went astray or was knocked on, denying the Mustangs many a try scoring opportunity. However, the Mustangs were first on the score sheet, when Tommy King was fed inside by Tom Ash following a sweeping move involving several players. The conversion was made, giving the Mustangs a 7-0 lead. Shortly after and the Mustangs were on the attack again. Ash was brought down just short of the line and from the ensuing ruck, unfortunately Nigel Maddaford found space to crash over for his 3rd try of the season. The conversion went wide, but the Mustangs deservedly held a 12-0 lead. Just before the break Thurrock scored a try of their own. The Mustangs defence was disorganised and Thurrock moved the ball quickly to the right winger, who only just won the race to the line. The conversion went wide and at half time the score was 12-5 to the Mustangs. The home side had been by far the dominant side and should have scored 3 or 4 more tries by the break.

The second half was in stark contrast to the first, as Thurrock played a very sensible game, kicking for territory and attacking the ill-functioning Maidstone line out. The Mustangs found it very difficult to get out of their own half. Thurrock scored the next points in the game. From a lineout, one of their back row came through on a crash ball and was aided by some fairly inept tackling to run in from 30 metres and score to the left of the posts. The conversion was made and the game now tied at 12-12.

Maidstone eventually made their way into Thurrock territory and began to move the ball around as they had in the first half. This paid dividends and when Ian Lee was sent galloping clear, Maidstone thought they had scored. However, once across the line, “Horse” heard the calls from his colleagues to go under the posts and whilst in the process of doing so, was collared by a Thurrock defender and the ref ruled that he was held up when trying to put the ball down.

Maidstone got over this disappointment and continued to look for another try. Eventually this came in the shape of James Ferris, who went on one of his trademark sniping runs down the blindside and out-sprinted the covering defence to score on the right side of the field. The conversion went wide, but the Mustangs now led 17-12. The rest of the game saw Thurrock throw everything they had at the home side, but the Mustangs defended valiantly to keep them at bay and secure themselves another win.

There were many notable performances on the day, and thanks go to those who stepped up to fill in the gaps when players were lost to the 1st team. Ross Laing, did a very good job in the scrum and even more surprisingly, turned up in time to take part in his first warm-up in 20 years. Luke Day had an exceptional first half, making numerous tackles and scrapping for possession on the floor. Tommy King once again showed his attacking prowess, from inside centre this week rather than blind side flanker, but he didn’t look out of place whatsoever. The Man of the Match this week goes to Luke Day, who had by far his best game of the season.

Moving on to Div of the Day – there were a few contenders this week. Nick East always throws his hat into the ring for this award, as mentioned earlier Ian Lee was a very strong nomination as was James Hughes for a similar offence to Ian. However, one “performance” really stood out. Having fantastically picked up a horrible pass from his boot laces, this person proceeded to beat his opposite man and leave himself a clear run to the line, which shouldn’t have caused any problems. In fact this reporter had thought a try was about to be scored and turned away to find the kicking tee – until he heard a cry of “Noooooooo!!!!” from coach Shaun Neaves. The ball had in explicably slipped from the grasp of the attacker and the ball hit the floor. However, to compound this unfortunate circumstance, the explanation of what happened really did seal the winning of Div of the Day. Apparently, the Phantom tackler (not Sam Johnston – he was elsewhere) was the players own shorts – who on this occasion developed a life of their own and deliberately knocked the ball out his hands. Ben McKellar – next time think of a better excuse.

Finally, a big thank you to most of the Mustangs for attending the team social. Hopefully everyone had a good laugh (though I doubt Mikey Laurenson was laughing Sunday morning when coaching the youth section, or perhaps when remembering he kissed John Whitehead’s forehead – many thanks to Mr Dray for his contribution to proceedings as well.

Team:-

Laing, East, Thurgood, Lee, Maddaford, Hughes, Day, O’Brien, Ferris, Laurenson, Sullivan, King, Dyke, McKellar, Ash, Yates, Ibar

Coach – Shaun Neaves

Physio – Catherine Grundy

Manager – Laurence Waters

Scorers:-

Tries – King, Maddaford (again!), Ferris

Conversions - Laurenson