Archive Match Reports
Sevenoaks Ex 1st 24 Dover II 19
09 Apr 2009
The extra XV were at Knole Paddock on Saturday in glorious weather for their last home game of the season against Dover . The visitors had snatched the winning spoils down on the coast earlier in the season and so the Oaks were in the mood for revenge. With the concrete carpark at Sevenoaks perhaps a more forgiving surface than the pitch itself, there will be many players nursing more scrapes and bruises than usual this week after a fiery encounter.
The home team fielded a strong line up well suited for the hard ground, the backline was bursting with pace and on the day the forwards committment and tenacity more than met the confrontational challenge of a large Dover pack. Kick off was delayed due to refereeing complications but when it did start the game got into a high, fast tempo almost immediately with the returning Oly Boatright-Smith gathering the kick off and charging forwards. The ball was recycled quickly and the half-back pairing of Ricky Brookman and George Roffey immediately signalled their intentions. Mark Reay made good ground switching with Deon Van Schalkwyk from outside centre and Will Barber just ran out of room in the dust close to the club house on the end of a 50 metre move.
The Dover backs were clearly shaken by this intial forray and for the next 15 minutes or so the ball remained firmly in the grasp of their forwards. The visiting pack mauled well but too often for them the ball limpet hands of Jamie Sayers and Jim Grant burrowed their way into awkward positions to steal or spoil the Dover effort.
The break in the deadlock came on the 20 minute mark. Sam Kirkaldy broke from the back of a scrum and made good yardage. The ball was promptly recycled and zipped accurately down the line to Will Barber on the left wing. Barber was moving like a missile and he shot through the gap infront of him despite the best efforts of wind drag from his glorious haircut slowing him down. As the full back approached he linked with his brother Jonny who was cruising in from full back to take the scoring pass under the posts. To the disbelief of some who have been following this side recently, Roffey added the extras.
The second score came quickly - Roffey kicked deep to the Dover full back and Charlie Watmough put in an excellent chase forcing a hurried clearance. Man of the match Jonny Barber was waiting just outside his 22 and latched onto the loose ball eagerly, he arked his run to the right hand side of the field and then put in an outrageous step off his right foot to deceive nearly all of the Dover back division. He pulled away from the cover beating the third would be tackler with another side step and the fourth we think just for fun. Needless to say he was soon under the sticks putting the ball down in the same spot as about 5 minutes previously. Again Roffey added the conversion. The Oaks were well worth their 14-0 lead but with this margin errors started to creep in.
Dover
were keeping it tight and scrapping for everything. Briefly the game descended into a spell of ugly dis-organisation and the odd flying fist, and with it the Oaks started to lose the shape that had put them ahead in the first place. Thankfully the referee handled things excellently, removing the
Dover
hooker for 10 minutes to the sin bin for a deliberate kick and gradually rugby returned as the main objective of the afternoon with the visitors really coming to the party.
Dover
struck next after a loose pass from Sevenoaks saw the ball hacked downfield and the Oaks defence were too slow to react. The ball was gathered by the chasing
Dover
players who exchanged passes and crossed the line outwide for 5 points of their own just before half time.
In the second half the battle shifted firmly up front, on 2 occasions the Dover pack broke through the Sevenoaks defence to score with a great solo run from their hooker, the former villain of the piece, standing out. However these 2 scores were spread well apart and were not enough to trouble Sevenoaks who seemed to turn on the tap when required and never conceded the lead. Shortly after the interval Jonny Barber rounded off his hat trick wide on the left and as soon as Dover threatened to close the gap Henry Davies romped through close to the break down after a good charge from Paul Vizard and a sharp offload from Brookman, Davies benefiting greatly from good, straight running.
If a few more passes had gone backwards instead of forwards and the penalty count against Sevenoaks had been lower this would have been a comfortable win but too often Sevenoaks were their own worst enemy. To Dover 's credit they hassled and persisted to stay in the match right to the final whistle and the Oaks can take a lot from the game on to their final match away at Gravesend in 2 weeks time when hopefully the grazes have healed.