Medway travelled to Crowborough on Saturday for a rearranged fixture that had originally fallen foul of the wet weather in January.

Fortunately the pitch was dry and, despite the stiff and cold Easterly wind, the conditions were good for open rugby.

Crowborough is a notoriously difficult place to visit and get a positive result and the stats show that they have one of the best defences in the league; only first and second placed Maidstone and Medway have conceded fewer points. The margin of victory was therefore pleasing for the visitors but they left Steel Cross with somewhat mixed feelings as their performance was good in parts, but still lacked the precision and accuracy that they strive to achieve.

Like last week against Sevenoaks, Medway started slowly conceding possession and were forced into soaking up early Crowborough pressure. Initially the set piece miss-fired and good field position was squandered as they lost the lineout or allowed the scrum to be disrupted.

As a result of Medway’s early mistakes, Crowborough went the closest to scoring the opening try and only a last ditch tap tackle from skipper James Dance prevented them from crossing the line. Crowborough were however awarded a penalty that was kicked over for a 3 – 0 lead.

Slowly Medway sorted out their issues and started to get into the game. Jimmy Rutherford combined with Billy Sandison to win a lineout on the half way line and the ball was fed out to Dan Hamilton in mid field. He broke through the first line of defence and then showed pace and power to race away and score a fantastic solo effort under the posts. Harvey added the extras and Medway were on their way and 7 – 3 up.

On the half hour mark Medway attacked again from a lineout drive and were held up over the Crowborough line. From the resulting scrum, the pack went for the push over and after three scrum penalties were awarded a penalty try, 14 -3 to the visitors. Medway then effectively closed out the game in the next ten minutes scoring two more tries in quick succession.

Firstly Dan Harvey sent up a massive up and under; a good kick chase enabled Dan Huntley to steal possession and the ball was moved down the line for Dan Hamilton to round the defence and score under the posts and register his second try. On the stroke of half time Crowborough’s defensive scrum was driven back by the Medway pack. James Dance snatched up the loose ball and did well to beat four Crowborough defenders and wriggle over for the bonus point try. Harvey added the extras and Medway were 28 – 3 up at half time.

Medway went on to score a further four tries in the second half from Charlie Wardzynski, Tom Beaumont and another two from Dan Hamilton. Crowborough registered two tries themselves as the game became quite loose and unstructured.

There were plenty of positives to come out of the game not least the four tries scored by winger Dan Hamilton who had his best game so far in a Medway shirt. After a slow start, the pack did well and edged both the lineout and scrums. The back row were good in the loose, and the three-quarters showed plenty of attacking threat.

Medway need three more points from their three remaining games to guarantee second in the league and the play-off game for promotion. They host Old Colfeians at Priestfileds next Saturday and will be going all out to get the job done at the first opportunity.

Medway team;

Petch, Sandison, O’Leary, Easton, Rutherford, Huntley, Beaumont, Humphrey, Dance, Harvey, Wardzynski, Liua’ana, Tila, Hamilton, Bennison, Subs; Brice, Mataapa, Burns (all used).