Dover 0 – Whitstable 35
The young Development squad emerged from the changing room on Saturday
in high spirits, after 3 convincing wins in as many weeks, against
a very strong and well drilled Whitstable team.
With the kickoff Dover was hungry for another win and chased the ball
down with vigour, but the opposition battered down through the defence.
A scrum given to Dover within their own 22, but was turned into a penalty
after the powerful Whitstable pack wheeled the scrum, and was duly
converted leaving Dover to trail by 3.
Two tries were then run in by Whitstable within 5 minutes of each other,
and another minutes before half time. This left Dover 18 points down.
The second half kicked off with Dover slightly rejuvinated, and saw
some talented lines being run by the whole of the backs, which were
halted every time at the Whitstable 5m line which seemed impenetrable.
Whitstable answered with a break away run, and resulted in the only
converted try of the match. With play slipping from Dover who had very
little possesion of the ball to start with, the pack stood firm in
the line-outs, and produced fine aerial play and good competition for
the ball.
This was reflected by the outstanding use of the 'blue ball' by the
smaller Dover pack against the decidedly larger opposition, which very
nearly resulted in a try. In the last 10 minutes of play however, Whitstable
put the final nails in the coffin with two more unconverted tries.
Substitutions for the match were Sam Mackenzie for Kayden, Aaron Cooper
for Sam Grayson, and James Warner for Sean McAdam. All the boys deserve
much praise for the performance put out, not once letting their heads
fall down against a team which included several 1st team players, and
they look forward to a better performance this week in their first
league game of the season against local rivals Deal and Betteshanger.
Reported by Sam Fields
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