Match Report
Mustangs vs Dover Sat 31st October 2009
Lost 8-46
Dover vs Mustangs – 31st October 2009
The Mustangs embarked on the long tortuous trip to the nether-regions of Kent, looking to build on a credible performance against Canterbury the previous week.
Unavailability, illness and 1st team call ups meant that the team once again had far too many changes, but on paper the team was still good.
The afternoon started badly, when on arrival the team were informed that the kick off was 2.30pm, not 3pm as advised during the week. This meant that the team’s warm up was severely shortened.
The Mustangs were slow to get going from the kick off and conceded a soft try on the right wing within 2 minutes. Things looked ominous for the visitors, however the team soon got going and started to dominate the scrums. Unfortunately, with no regular hooker and no recognised line-out jumpers playing, the lineout was a source of weakness all afternoon.
Having managed to get back into the game so well, it was a real kick in the teeth when the referee, who must have been unsighted, awarded Dover a try when the “scorer” had knocked the ball on by about a yard before diving on it over the line. The perceived injustice actually fired up the Mustangs and they began to harass the home side, causing them to make numerous handling mistakes. Maidstone began to dominate possession and territory, despite playing up the slope. Eventually the pressure began to mount, as did the Dover penalty count and Maidstone were awarded a kickable penalty, which unfortunately went wide. Thankfully, Dover infringed once more to gift Mike Laurenson 3 points.
Maidstone continued to press and from a lineout on the Dover 5 metre line, Ben Rookledge managed to steal possession from Dover and dive over the line. The conversion attempt was missed but this brought the score to 14-8, which is how the half ended.
With the slope now with them, the Mustangs felt they should be able to continue in the same vein as they finished the 1st half and for 15 minutes this was the case. Maidstone were guilty of getting themselves into good territorial positions only to give the ball away or give away cheap penalties, which allowed Dover to clear. The first attacking spell Dover had in the 2nd half resulted in a try in the right corner, which was converted. The score seemed to deflate the Mustangs and gave Dover impetus. From this point forward, Dover became totally dominant, even more so once Mark Thurgood had to leave the field meaning scrums went uncontested.
Maidstone’s defensive organisation totally deserted them and Dover proceeded to score four more tries in the final 15 minutes and ended up comfortable winners by 46-8.
Man of the Match – the award goes to Ben Rookledge, who had an outstanding game at open-side flanker and continued to show the form he had been displaying in the 3rd team recently. If the rest of the side had displayed the same levels of commitment and attitude as Ben, the score line could well have read very differently.
