Folkestone III XV (5) v (13) Dover IV XV
Played 2nd February 2008
Dover fourths maintained their winning streak with a hard won victory over
their near neighbours. The scoreline suggests a close game but in truth the
dominant Dover pack always had the edge in both scrums and line outs. The failure
to add more points to the winning total came from fine Folkestone defence at
the contact area and some poor decision making by some senior players who should
know better !
Dover got off to a great start with fullback Justin Marx fielding a high ball
in his own half and with a shake of the hips and a couple of dummies he had
run in a magnificent try. The Dover forwards then exerted their power with
the front row causing Folkestone to lose their scrums on several occasions.
Jason Wall was also taking plentiful ball at the line out and wave upon wave
of Dover attacks were forced upon a committed defence. Folkestone defence stood
firm and no more points were scored in the first half.
Folkestone playing against the elements in the second half, upped their game
and scored a fine try despite the best efforts of the Dover tacklers. Dover
responded to this challenge with further good play from both forwards and backs.
Howard, Jennings and Yarnell were making ground in the forward drives whilst
Samson and Westfield started to stretch the Folkestone backs. Eventually a
try came from another powerful scrummage and surge from the Dover pack. Scrum
half Mercer fed the ball to Bowman who used Samson as a decoy run and this
move allowed a scoring pass to go to winger Danny Prescott. The conversion
was missed but a penalty was kicked soon after to keep winning margin to above
a converted try. Unfortunately the game was ended prematurely due to a nasty
injury to a Folkestone forward and this meant that such a fine match finished
on a low note.
Report by: Chris Bowman
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