Following useful warm up friendlies at Gravesend and Dover over the past two weeks Medway travelled to Thanet on Saturday for Round 1 of the Kent Cup and their first competitive game of the new season.
Thanet gained promotion last year by winning London South East 3 league and enjoying a successful season, so the locals knew they faced a stiff test against young and confident opposition.
Medway’s squad has a number of changes since last season and some of the new faces were on show on Saturday. Prop Alex O’Leary, utility player Ben Dance, fly half Dan Harvey and centre Rueben Meares all made pleasing contributions to a good overall team performance from forwards and backs alike.
Medway ran out comfortable winners dominating possession and territory for large parts of this game. That said, Thanet were a constant threat on the break showing great speed and precision scoring three tries in response to the six touch downs from Medway.
The score line could have been different had it not been for Thanet’s excellent scrambled defence. On at least four occasions Medway broke free and looked odds on to score, only to be thwarted inches short of the line by great try saving tackles.
Medway’s tries came at regular intervals from Jason kay, James Dance (2), Tom Beaumont, Alex O’Leary and a fine solo effort by Charlie Wardzynski. Dan Harvey’s kicking was excellent as he successfully converted seven out of eight of his shots on goal.
Although Medway’s performance was generally good, there remains lots of work to do over the coming weeks to be ready for the league campaign which commences on the 13th September with an away game at Tunbridge Wells.
Medway team;
Brice, Sandison, O’Leary, Easton, Johnson, B Dance, Beaumont, Flanagan, J Dance, Harvey, Garofalo Liua’ana, Meares, Kay, Wardzynski.