12 – 17

A mixed team took to the field on a freezing Saturday afternoon at Sheppey, a few of the core players that have been working with the 4’s this season were missing, however we were able to pick up a few players from elsewhere from within the club at the eleventh hour.

Sheppey had the strongest start to this game, at a rough guess territory in the first half was roughly 80% in their favour.  Early on the stones side struggled slightly in the scrum finding it difficult to set and then hold a fairly well drilled Sheppey  pack,  difficult to pin point exactly the problem, a mixture of  pitch conditions, unfamiliar players and taking too long to settle into the game. This did change through the course of the game though to a point where the stones forwards had the mark on there opposition in the scrum and the line out play.

Sheppey camped out in the Folkestone half & we went through an endless phase of Scrum and line out, some exceptional defending by every player in green proved extremely frustrating for the attacking side. The referee for this game had a particular wish to see the back rows remain fully bound on to the scrum until the ball was well clear, & I mean well clear, this became a real problem as time and time again he penalised us for breaking away early ! our appeals were turned down and Sheppey continued to gain ground mainly through penalty awards, Several try saving tackles being made right on the try line, Eustace & Webber among the tacklers.

A breakthrough in the play came on the left with Paul Windross receiving the ball on the half way mark , he made his way through several defenders to take the ball in under the post for an exceptional try and not his last of the day, it was unconverted.

Sheppey came back with another spell of pressure and this time they broke through on the right hand side of the Stones defence to score their first. Short lived celebrations for the home side though as Folkestone’s Gareth Webber took a very tidy short pass and drove over for the
Visitors second.

In the second half It was Folkestone’s turn to dominate, some changes had been made in the shape of Funnell for Tavvi & Webber for Lord. As per the previous weeks game we went through some nice phases of play using in particular the front five of Tavvi, CDB, Wilson, Gurr & Stringer to batter and drive in to the Home side, Hull and Spicer choosing their opportunities well to send the backs on the attack.

Folkestone were reduced to 14 for the second week on the trot when Joe Hull was deemed to tackle the Sheppey winger ever so slightly late, off  went our visiting Kiwi for ten minutes under the posts on his first visit to the isle of Sheppey.

Defences held well, the Folkestone side had a determination throughout the side that needed little encouragement from myself  to ensure Sheppey didn’t gain the upper hand on us, It worked well and shortly after receiving Hull back to the field a burst through from Windross on the left saw him run the three quarters of the pitch with Sheppey players in pursuit to score the games final try.

This Folkestone side is doing the basics very well at the moment, they are not getting overly frustrated when things go against them, instead they continue to play their game and wait for the opportunities that will always eventually present themselves, the back line is growing in confidence and do not hesitate to take those opportunities.

Man of the Match  Paul Windross

Team; Funnell, CDB, Wilson, Stringer, Gurr, Bacon, Murray, Petts, Hull, Spicer, Himbury, Eustace, Inuit, Windross, Webber. Subs; Lord, Tavvi,