U13s v Dover

Sunday saw us at Ash host a 4 way festival in the Under 12s section, in which we played Folkestone, Dover and Whitstable. The sun was shinning and a bit of warmth on our backs (at last!) but it did make the ground a bit on the firm side, but all the players rose to the conditions and played some fantastic rugby.

Our first game was against Folkestone which was a hard fought contest in the middle of the pitch, with some hard running and ball carrying by both sets of forwards. Ash managed to score first to settle the nerves after a cagey start then adding 2 more tries in quick succession. Folkestone rallied hard and put 2 tries on the board themselves. Ash managed to turn the screws towards the end of the game adding 2 more tries, to make a final score of 5-4 to Ash.

The second game was against a very strong and talented Dover side. The game was a very close battle for the whole of the game, with some great tackling and strong work at the break down, which allowed for both sides to exploit the spaces created down both wings which made for a very entertaining game. Ash made a good start getting 2 tries but a strong resilient Dover side came back well and made 2 tries to level the game. Ash pressed on applying pressure on the Dover defence which held strong and made 2 fantastic try saving tackles, but we managed to sneak 2 tries to take the lead. Dover never gave up and pressed forward putting our defence under pressure, with a clearance kick from their own half turning the defence which had be but out of play over the dead ball line and from the resulting restart, Dover spread the ball with some great handling allowing a free run in to score making the final score 4-3 to Ash.

The third game was against an under strength Whitstable side due to numbers, so we lent them 2 players to bolster their side to make a good game which it turned out to be. Whitstable came out the blocks firing putting 2 tries on the board without reply. Then we woke up and started to play the way we can and had in the previous games and managed to score several tries to edge out a very resilient Whitstable side, that never gave up and tried to the final whistle. The final score was 5-2 to Ash.

It was a great end to the season for all the clubs all the players with smiles on their faces in which rugby was the winner!!!

Author: Neil