Dover (IV) 44 v 24 Whitstable (III)
Played 17/11/2007
Dover fourths maintained their winning form in a game of two contrasting halves
at a cold and bleak Crabble. The home team once again dominated the opening
period scoring six tries against a Whistable side that were shunted back at
the scrums and lost their own ball in the lineouts. Winger Tony Watson once
again opened the scoring following good forward play and accurate passing from
the back line. Whitstable replied with a try of their own following some sloppy
clearance work from the back three. This proved only to be a minor setback
as the Dover forwards started to flex their muscle and their superior weight
advantage. The scrummaging power of Ross Jennings, Clive Wilkins and Paddy
McAdam led to two push over tries from number eight Neil Yarnell. Neil Yarnell
also demonstrated pace and power for the next and best try of the game. Fielding
the ball from the Whitstable restart he surged up the pitch swatting off the
Whitstable defenders, before slipping the ball to on rushing Jason Wall to
complete a fine try. Further power play from the collective forward effort
allowed Richard Hover to touch down and slick passing allowed Levi Goody to
score his customary try. It was proving to be fine half of rugby and a humungous
score looked likely for the home side.
How things changed in the second half! Whitstable playing with the elements
upped their efforts and aided by a catalogue of mystifying decisions by the
match referee started to take control. Whitstable scored three tries as a puzzled
Dover team and crowd tried to work out what was going on. Dover did manage
to add points to their first halve total with Liam Rolland crashing over and
Chris Bowman adding a penalty.
Unfortunately tempers started to fray in the closing minutes as both teams
started to set down a marker for the return leg in three weeks time. As the
final whistle blew, the home side knew that they should have put this double-legged
cup game out of sight for the visitors. However they should take heart from
a dominant forward display and take out their frustrations with a positive
outlook.
Report by: Chris Bowman
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