Match Report
Mustangs vs Canterbury II – Sat 24th October 2009
Lost 17-27
A youthful Canterbury 2nd team, including former Maidstone man Sam “ginger” Rogers, came to The Mote last weekend to take on a Mustangs which on paper was capable of putting a winning performance together.
Maidstone showed early dominance in the forwards, especially in the scrum and Canterbury appeared to have the edge in the backs, especially the full back who was very lively all game and made many decisive breaks.
Maidstone lost hooker Mike Hill after 20 minutes with concussion, which required Sam Bailey to step across and make his debut at hooker.
Canterbury were the only team to get points on the board in the 1st half, with a converted try and a penalty. For the try, Maidstone were slow to reorganise themselves in defense and were caught with a lack of defenders to their left allowing Canterbury a relatively easy score.
Despite going in at half time 10-0 down, Maidstone had plenty of territory and possession but were too often the makers of their own downfall, spilling the ball in contact or loose passing being too frequent.
Playing with the elements in their favour, Maidstone took the game to Canterbury and before long scored a try in the left corner. Following a driving maul, Nick Sargent emerged having scored. The forwards still looked dominant and made Canterbury work very hard in defence. The pressure began to tell and a superb backs move levelled the scores. Fly half Tommy King passed back inside to right wing Mark Ryan who hit a superb running line and made a break from 30 metres, drew the defence and timed his long pass right to perfection for fellow wing man Lewis Fawcett to collect and score on the right. This try brought the scores level.
Maidstone had their tails up at this point and starved their opponents of possession and territory. An inspired run from King from inside his own half broke the defensive line and with a side step and at least one trademark “Kingeroo Spin-eroo”, TK beat the full back and sped off to score under the posts, leaving Laurenson with a simple conversion which gave the Mustangs a 17-10 lead.
Maidstone were in control at this point, but made a crucial tactical decision which costs them dearly. From a Maidstone scrum inside their own 22, the Mustangs opted to pick up and run into midfield and pass to the backs on a crash ball. Maidstone knocked on and gave the visitors a scrum in attacking position. Canterbury took full advantage and scored a converted try from this position to ring the scores level. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the sensible decision for the home side at their scrum was just to kick and move themselves out their 22.
Some slack defending allowed Canterbury to add another converted try and with time running out, the Mustangs gave away a kickable penalty which Canterbury duly converted giving them a 10 point lead with only a couple of minutes remaining. Maidstone were unable to add to their score in the closing minutes, and ended up on the wrong side of a 27-17 defeat.
This was a fantastic game to watch, played by two well matched teams. Maidstone are improving as a side and hopefully this will continue. All credit to Canterbury for coming back to win having conceded 17 unanswered points in the early part of the second half.
Man of the Match is a difficult choice as the whole team played well, but it goes to Tommy King for the “go-forward” attitude he always brings to the team.
Div of the Day – as I haven’t had chance to write a report for 2 weeks, I’m going to award this to Richard Coles, who was missed the Canterbury game with concussion. Richard was felled having charged down the ball with his face against Sidcup the previous week and really did fall to the floor like a sack of coals.
Finally, congratulations to the 1st XV for their win at Aylesford – hopefully this is the platform to kick on to better things and is reward for the effort that everyone has put in so far this season.
Team:-
Bailey, Hill, Maytum, Simpson, Lee, Thomson, Day, Sargent, Tugwell, King, Fawcett, McClintock, Wetjen, Ryan, Laurenson, Thurgood, Wainhouse.
Scorers:-
Tries – Sargent, Fawcett, King
Conversions - Laurenson
