Medway and Crowborough have enjoyed entertaining and competitive games over the past few seasons and as the score line suggests, this game was no different.
Medway lined up without influential Ryan Redman who has departed for Loughborough University, and last week’s match winner, Olly Best who was ill. Young Charlie Wardzynski slotted in at full back and had an accomplished game, kicking four of his five attempts on goal. Two other players also made their debuts for the first team as Eanna Flannagan and Kustino Otterbach came off the bench in the second half.
Medway owed this victory to an excellent first half performance where playing into a strong wind, they not only contained Crowborough with excellent defence, they actually controlled large parts of the game and with a little more precision would have had a greater lead at half time.
Straight from the kick off Medway went through their phases and stretched the visitor’s defence moving up the field with purpose. Owain Fussell, who had a fine game in the centre, made a break and Crowborough were penalised for not releasing right under their posts. Up stepped Wardzynski to slot the penalty and give Medway an early lead after only two minutes.
Medway’s loose play was very good and the back row of Huntley, Beaumont and Fiu Samuela were excellent again. On two occasions in the first half Medway came agonisingly close to scoring tries; Glenn Wadsworth set up Bobby Ellis to slice through the visitor’s defence but unfortunately lost control of the ball as he was tackled diving over the try line; secondly, a good counter attack was snuffed out by spirited Crowborough defence as Medway looked certain to score. Crowborough’s excellent scrum half did make a solo break and only great cover defence by Tom Beaumont and Dan Huntley stopped him from scoring.
So Medway turned around at half time with a slender 3 – 0 lead and looked forward to playing with the support of the following wind during the second period. As can often happen in these circumstances, they were possibly guilty of relaxing a little and the intensity and precision in their game dropped. Two early lineouts in the Crowborough 22 went astray, and hence chances were missed. However, as Medway attacked and attacked something had to give. Wardzynski doubled Medway’s lead with another penalty and shortly afterwards Glenn Wadsworth skipped through to score a try under the posts. With the simple conversion, Medway led 13 – 0 after only seven minutes of the second half and looked capable of pulling away further and scoring more points. Crowborough however had other ideas and dug in using their powerful front five to prevent the home side establishing the platform they needed. Medway’s lineout was again impressive with Easton, Johnson and hooker Humphrey all doing well.
Wardzynski slotted his third penalty after 36 minutes to extend Medway’s lead and finally on the stroke of full time Crowborough scored a consolation converted try to make the score 16 – 7.
Overall the determination and spirit of the Medway team was again excellent, however there are a number of aspects of their game that need to improve, so much to work on during training this week!
Medway team:
Cooley; Humphrey; Reddish; Johnson; Easton; Beaumont; Samuela; Huntley; Dance; Wadsworth; Catlin; Burns; Fussell; Ellis; Wardzynski; Petch; Flannagan; Otterbech.
Next game is a league match away at Heathfield and Waldron on Saturday 5th October 2013.