Dover U13s (22) v Maidstone U13s
(22)
Played at Dover on 25/11/2007
The young Stones made the 45 mile trek down the M20 for this season’s
first encounter with the Sharks on Sunday. The home side had trained
hard mid-week and were by far the more organised and positive at the
starting whistle, quickly following up their kick to pressure the visitors
close to their try line. The forwards played well at the first ruck,
the ball was delivered to the backs who passed with confidence to go
over out wide and register the first score. This was followed up with
further dominating play by the Sharks who were quicker to breakdowns,
the forwards punching a way through the Stones defence for another
5 points. Maidstone, who are never a pushover, fought back and Dover
after successive offside infringements close their line conceded two
avoidable trys to end the half at 10 points all.
At the start of the second period, Dover’s performance in set
piece play was not as tight, the visitors exploited this and scored
2 trys, one of which was converted. In previous matches it was at this
point Dover heads went down, but to their great credit the whole team
rallied and totally dominated the play. Forward’s hard work was
rewarded by winning ball, fluidity in the backs though accurate passing
and above all 100% commitment brought the scores level including an
excellent conversion by Dover’s fly half. With five minutes of
play remaining, Maidstone held out against the run of play but at final
whistle a draw fairly represented the efforts of both teams.
Under 13s : Conor Allen, Luke Allen, Joe Baker, Joe Bisset, Hal Bryan,
Jordan Caldwell, Tom Clark, Marcus Coulson, Jos Crush, Robert Duffy,
Shaun Fields, Sam Gibbs, Sam Harrison, Shane Hopgood, James Hornsey,
Tom Johnstone, Oliver Latham, Issack Goeghegan, James Moynan, Luke
Rigden, Thomas Saunders, Jack Smith, Oliver Thomson and Joe Tonkin.
Coaches: Bob Thompson and George Clark.
Reported by Chris Bryan
