Maidstone Vets 5
Dover Vets 10
With the Somme unplayable the Vets decamped to the park to face Dover and as opposed to previous weeks when the team has been competitive from the first whistle this week no control was shown until the last ten minutes when the game was effectively already lost. Despite having the majority of possession and field position mainly thanks to an excellent display of kicking out of hand by Coomber the Vets were never able to convert their superiority into points. Much of the reason for this was the committed work of the Dover forwards, in particular their back row, that were able to successfully close down any space the Vets half backs had and disrupt ball at the rear of Maidstone set pieces and rucks. Both Dover tries resulted from poor Maidstone defence, with the first being a simple backs move well finished by the Dover wing and the second from a string of missed midfield tackles. The weather conditions were not conducive to place kicking and both tries remained unconverted. Turning around 0-10 the Vets should have been encouraged at keeping within touch of Dover having played into the elements for the first half and in theory being able to use the conditions to their advantage in the second half. This did not materialise despite stealing numerous line outs and several scrums against the head. Dover continued their spoiling work and momentum was never gained by the Vets. Maidstone believed that they had scored a legitimate try although the referee ruled that Tucker was held up so denying the wing his score. Former captain Richards then sportingly admitted to knocking on with the ball over the line, with the referee having awarded the score. Maidstone did finally register a try following a catch and drive move with guest hooker Craven touching down. Coomber was unfortunate to not convert with the last kick of the game.
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