Dover U14s Away at Ashford for Kent 11s
Played Sunday 27th September 2009
Dover U14’s travelled to Ashford to play their first competitive games of the season in a County 11’s tournament.
All of the other teams turned up with large squads in both numbers and size and had obviously come with the intention of winning the competition, whereas the Dover coaches had decided to use the event as a chance to give the boys some match time and assess their progress.
The draw pitted Dover against , Old Beccahmians, Ashford and Old Elthamians – there were obviously going to be no easy games !
First up were Bromley, and the Dover team took to the pitch (as they were to all day) to be met by a far larger and heaviBromleyer opposition.
However the boys were not intimidated by appearances and rather then letting Bromley have it all their own way, Dover competed for every ball and made Bromley work very hard for their narrow victory.
Buoyed by this performance, the next two games against Olds Beccahmians and Ashford were very close indeed.
Against Old Beccahmians, Dover took the lead with a well taken try by Jordan Annakie, following some great team work, controlling the ball and moving downfield with both the forwards and backs uniting as a team.
Old Beccahmians were shell shocked by this and at half time were lambasted by their coaches. Although Beccs managed to score two tries in the second half to snatch victory, it was by no means one way traffic as Dover continued to play good team rugby, and could easily have scored again.
Ashford proved to be another game that could have gone either way, with Dover eventually losing by two tries to one.
Ashford opened the scoring but were being put under servere pressure by Dover when Kallum Allen (who was playing with a groin injury) scored a fine try.
The game continued to be be evenly matched and it was only at the death that Ashford managed to clinch the win.
Last up was Old Eltamians (who were the eventual finalists) who proved to be too strong for the now very tired Dover boys and ran out comfortable winners.
The boys can be proud of their efforts against very strong opposition and the coaches now hope to analyse their performance and work on ways to improve the team further.
The tournament enabled the boys to have a good run out and gave the coaches a valuable insight into the teams current position.
It was impossible to name a man of the match as the whole team performed well, but Peter at only his second start at scrum half and Kieron playing in the centers for the first time both impressed, as did the captain George.
Special mention should go to two debutants, Jamie and Arron who both impressed and look very good additions to the squad, and Joe Cooper, our injured forward, who took the trouble to come along and support the team.
Team: Robin Jenkins, Arron Coleman, Jamie, Angus Killin, Matt Ribbans, George Smith (c), Jordan Annakie, Peter, Harry Moore, Kieron, Finley McMunn, Tyler Walledge, Kallum Allen, Corey Murdoch
Reported By Tim Moore
Posted 2nd October 2009
