Match Report
Mustangs vs Westcombe Park 3’s – Sat 12th September 2009
Away at The Crabble, Saturday 12th September, 2009, Kick Off –3.00pm
A Mustangs team which had changed dramatically for a variety of reasons between Tuesday and Saturday took to the field for their first league encounter at The Mote to take on Westcombe Park’s 3rd team.
The Mustangs got off to a lapsidasical start with no one claiming the kick off and allowing the visitors to gather the ball. There was a lack of cohesion in the Mustangs, due in the main to lack of rugby having been played before this encounter and also due to the fact there were some new faces and partnerships in place.
Combe opened the scoring in a fashion which was to become a common trend, where from long range the fly half ran through large gaps in the defence to break away and set up the score. This happened on 3 more occasions in the half, with the other Combe score coming from a chip ahead on the Maidstone 22 which was gathered by the kicker who proceeded to go over in the corner.
In between the Combe scores, Maidstone played some very good rugby, keeping the ball alive well and were unfortunate to have a try disallowed for a forward pass. Maidstone were however often their own worst enemy, being guilty of going to sleep when they had the ball and allowing to visitors to steal the ball in mauls or not being proactive enough at rucks we had won and were often turned over. From these mistakes the team was slow to react and were inevitably punished.
The 1st half ended with Combe leading 24-0, but the Maidstone players remained positive in the knowledge that they had played some decent rugby.
The 2nd half saw much of the same, with Maidstone often playing well to get into good field position only to either knock on, get turned over or more annoyingly allowing indiscipline to creep in resulting in needless and silly penalties being given away.
Maidstone did manage two scores in the 2nd half. The first followed a good break out from inside their own half which took the team to the Combe try line. Bush Leaguer extraordinaire, Dane Smith muscled his way over to score and Alan McCabe converted.
The other score again occurred once more through a good mid-field break which was halted in the visitors 22. The ball was moved to the left and Martin Maytum used his slightly more svelte frame to barge over the line.
However Combe did score 3 more tries in the half, though one of which was courtesy of a pass which went 5 metres forward, to seal a comprehensive 43-12 win.
Maidstone weren’t helped by the fact they only had 1 substitute, which meant George Coomber played the 2nd half with a broken big toe and Rich Glover had to limp through the last 20 minutes with a sprained ankle.
The forwards performed well in the set piece and in the main played well in the tight, however as mentioned previously they were guilty of going to sleep on several occasions and getting turned over.
The best performances on the day came from Richard Coles, whose new found fitness has certainly made him a more dynamic ball carrier, Matt Vickers who put in a lot of hard work around the pitch and threw in well to the lineout. New arrival Tom McMulkin also had a good game from full back, making many an incisive run and also some great work in defence, the highlight of which was a fantastic try saving tackle. Tuggy also has a great game on the wing, with some great tackles combined with his trademark 30m sideways, 10m forwards runs.
Man of the Match goes to Matt Vickers, who has now departed to begin university life.
Div of the Day is awarded to Martin Maytum, who lost his temper far too often.
Team:-
Maytum, Vickers, Thurgood, Wainhouse, Wright (L), D Smith, Rookledge, Coles, Powis, McCabe, Tugwell, Glover, HIpkins, Coomber, McMulkin, Shawbrowne.
Scorers:-
Tries – Smith, Maytum
Conversions - McCabe
