Mustangs Vs Tunbridge Wells – Sat 21st February 2009

Despite three late changes to the back line due to injuries, a competent Mustangs XV took to the field to take on T Wells.

The game got off to a bizarre start, with the referee injuring himself within 2 minutes. A 5 minute delay ensued and there was concern that the game may not go on, however all credit to Bill Burton for toughing it out and ensuring the game was seen through to its natural conclusion.

The Mustangs began strongly, with the powerful forward pack dominant in the loose, utilising a strong mauling and rucking game. The backs took a little while to get going, which wasn’t surprising considering the enforced changes. The first 20 minutes did however belong to the home side, and there were rewarded when Luke “wacca” Day bundled his way over from close range. Laurenson converted to give the home side a 7-0 lead. Maidstone had been guilty of messing up some good chances prior to this, so it was good to settle the nerves with the first score. The team continued to dominate in the loose and a turnover followed by quick hands saw skipper Nick East gallop down the right wing, draw the man and with an over head pass seemingly put James Ferris into score. However, a last ditched tackle halted James’ progress, though the Mustangs weren’t to be denied as quick ruck ball allowed Richard Coles to bundle over for an unconverted try. With a 12-0 lead, the Mustangs were well set, however from this point onward, the team lost the structure and discipline which allowed them to dominate the first 20 minutes.

The team started to play something similar to touch rugby, stopped taking the ball into contact which allowed the game to become scrappy, which seemed to suit T Wells. For the remainder of the half Maidstone failed to look after possession properly, and there were far too many dropped balls and poor passes, people getting isolated which resulted in turnovers and gifting possession to the away team, who capitalised on the chances given to them. The backline went a bit to sleep in defence and were caught out on the wings on a couple of occasions, giving the away team easy overlaps, and only some good last ditched tackling saved certain tries. During this period, T Wells hit the post with a penalty attempt and also had a man held up over the line. It appeared as if Maidstone had weathered the storm and a good break out of defence from Andy Cairns took play to half way. However Maidstone were slow to secure possession, got turned over and T Wells broke away to score. From the restart, Maidstone were fortunate not to gain a yellow card for tackling the man in the air, and the half ended 12-5.

The message at half time was to look after the ball and go through the phases, building pressure on the defence.

The 2nd half began well with Maidstone rucking and mauling with much more control and ball retention vastly improved. Space was created for live wire scrum half James Ferris to utilise, which he did to great effect and terrorised the T Wells defence for the entire half. James was rewarded for his fine 2nd half display with 2 tries, the first following good inter-passing between the forwards and backs, the 2nd following a good high ball catch from Charlie Flynn who then off-loaded to Ferris and set him away on one of his scuttling runs to the try line. More Maidstone pressure saw Luke Day looking as if he was heading in to score under the post, but a last ditched trip saved the home side. However the Mustangs recycled the ball quickly and used simple handling along the line to leave Ian Lee with a simple canter over the try-line to score. This made the score 29-5 to Maidstone. The final score of the afternoon came from winger Andy Cairns, with another overlap created allowing him a free run to the try-line.

The game finished 34-5 to the Mustangs and they were definitely worth the win and anyone who thought the score line was flattering, quite frankly needs to get down to Specsavers and get their eyes tested or get rid of the rose-tinted spectacles they must have been wearing.

Apart from the last 20 minutes of the first half, the team played some excellent rugby, especially as this was a slightly different looking 2nd team than normally appears. However all those that stepped up from the lower teams did a tremendous job.

The front row of Gray, Vickers and Walker just about held parity in the scrums, and Jim was again great in the loose, with some good turnovers and balls carries. In the 2nd row, Paul Glover did well in the lineout and Richard “Sack” Coles had his best game to date, putting in a lot of hard yards at showing what an impact he can make with ball in hand, not just from using his considerable bulk but also he has got a great pair of hands, claiming a lot of restarts and also some great off-loading out of the tackle.

The back row trio of East, Day and Lee were great in defence and attack especially, providing the much needed link to the backs. The lineout worked well, with East easily achieving his 83% lineout success bench mark.

Mike Laurenson lead the back line well and got the forwards moving constantly forward with some intelligent kicking. It was great to have Jerry Hipkins back involved having not played at all since injuring himself in November. Damian Houlihan looked impressive at outside centre and it is such a shame that it looks like his season is over following a reoccurrence of his knee injury.

The wingers John Francis and Andy Cairns didn’t have lots to do in attack, but Andy finished off his try well and both in the main tackled well. Congratulations to George Coomber, regular 4th team full back who came into the side following drop outs and looked at home at this level.

Charlie Flynn acquitted himself well from the bench as did Duncan McClintock and Ben Walker.

Man of the Match:- goes to James Ferris, for an excellent display, making numerous breaks and scoring 2 good tries.

Div of the Day – could easily go to the ref for failing to warm up properly, or SC for that shocking tackle, however it goes to…..James Ferris, for being persuaded to buy a hatrick jug, even though he only scored twice – though you could say it was his fine for jug avoidance, as towards the end of the game he could have scored from 50 metres out, but let himself be tackled.

Next week, the team face an extremely tough test away at league leaders Old Elthamians, who will no doubt be looking to avenge the defeat inflicted on them by the Mustangs in October.

Team:-

Walker, Vickers, Gray, Coles, Glover, East, Day, Lee, Ferris, Laurenson, Cairns, Hipkins, Houlihan, Francis, Coomber, Flynn, Walker, McKlintock

Coaches – Gary Whitehead, Fin Davis

Physio – Catherine Grundy

Manager – Laurence Waters

Scorers:-

Tries – Day, Coles, Ferris x 2, Lee, Cairns

Conversions – Laurenson x 2