Mustangs vs Dover 2’s – Sat 14th March 2009

The Mustangs took the long drive to Dover last Saturday, hoping to continue the good form of the previous week. Things did not turn out as planned, as the team was comprehensively beaten

62-0 by a very competent Dover outfit.

The Mustangs got off to a bad start, conceding a penalty in front of the posts within the opening 2 minutes, which was duly converted by the Dover kicker, who kicked superbly all afternoon.

It was soon clear that Maidstone were going to have a difficult afternoon, as the bigger, faster and more aggressive Dover pack continually punched holes around the fringes and through the midfield. Only some excellent defending kept the home side at bay initially, but eventually Maidstone were left short of defenders and Dover scored the first of 4 first half tries. The difficulties were compounded when Tom Moon had to leave the field after 10 minutes due to injury.

Maidstone’s problems were mainly that they weren’t able to retain any set piece ball, and were continually driven backward at the scrum and lost numerous lineouts on their own throw. Dover seized on the Maidstone errors and the pack was always playing on the back foot. It is fair to say that the Maidstone first up tackling wasn’t at its best all game and made things easier for the home side than it should have been. The half finished 29-0 to Dover.

The 2nd half began with much more spirit and commitment being shown by the visitors, but again errors kept on coming, which Dover pounced on. Maidstone did have some joy with picking and driving round the fringes, but just as momentum was gained a handling error or turnover occurred which usually resulted in Dover scoring. Once such instance summed up the day. Fin davis secured an excellent turnover on half way. Maidstone go the ball to the back of the ruck but didn’t do anything with it, Dover counter rucked, reclaimed the ball and 2 passes later scored.

Richard Coles was forced to leave the field, leaving the team with only 14 men and worse still, Matt Vickers also had to leave the field of play for the final 5 minutes.

All in all an extremely disappointing day, however, the effort of the players can’t be questioned, as everyone tried as hard as they could. It must be remembered that due to unavailability’s and first team call ups, 6 of the regular Mustangs, and 6 that form the core of the team, weren’t playing in this game, all key positions which meant that not only did the Mustangs have almost a new look side, with people not really have played much together, but we also had people playing out of position. This is not meant as an excuse for defeat, but with our usual team taking the field, win or lose the nature of the game would have been very different. All credit to Dover however, who played some excellent rugby on the day.

Man of the Match – despite the defeat, there were a few very good performances. George Coomber again showed some excellent running skills from full back and also put in 3 try saving tackles. Fin Davis came on for Tom Moon and had an outstanding game, leading the way in defence in terms of tackling and turnovers. However, man of the match this week goes to Charlie Flynn, who never gave up all afternoon, put his body on the line, kept tackling and produced some good runs with ball in hand.

Div of the Day – Goes to George Coomber, who left The Mote to make the trip for the game and headed up the motor way towards London.

Just as a reminder to everyone who reads this, the club presentation dinner is fast approaching, make sure you put your name down behind the bar to confirm your attendance.

Team:-

Gray, Vickers, MacIntyre, Coles, Flynn, Moon, B Walker, Lee, Francis, McClintock, Cairns, Hipkins, Parbutt, Harvey, Coomber, Davis, Maytum

Coaches – G Whitehead, F Davis

Physio – A Rooke

Manager – L Waters