Gravesend 37 CS Rugby 1863 18

Frustration, front row issues, equality and emancipation.

Gravesend 37 CS Rugby 1863 18

One might have expected the last minute heroics at London Irish the previous week to have lifted the Stags going into this mid-table clash at Gravesend but, not so: this was a distinctly lethargic performance for much of the time.

Despite CS taking an early lead through a Darryl Gore penalty, the mood was decidedly flat and doubtless not helped when Gravesend scored next following a break out from defence and an arguably just less than lateral ball transfer on the half way line which put their full back away to touch down near the corner.

A fairly scrappy period of play followed with a plethora of handling errors by both sides in more or less equal measure. There was very much a feeling that the Stags were waiting for things to happen rather than making them happen and the ball was treated several times as a dangerous object to be got rid of immediately.

Gravesend at this juncture were little better and on the half hour went behind to another penalty, conceded for hands in the ruck. In the absence of regular kicker, Scott Hadden, his reliable deputy, Captain Darryl, stepped up again to the mark and slotted it, to inch the visitors ahead but this, frankly, was as good as it got.

Thereafter Gravesend prospered, but it was not only by dint of CS’s intransigence but, perhaps rather more significantly, they were evidently on their way to severely undermining the Stags’ set scrummage. This essentially hitherto sturdy edifice, although it has creaked occasionally, has not, so far as your reporter is aware, been subjected to quite such a thorough examination, indeed a mini demolition, as this one this season, and, even if Brian Moore would have been constantly moaning about the legitimacy of the tight head’s bind, this ex-front row forward (your reporter) at least, who played in an age when the rules of front row engagement were less regimented, could only admire an old pro going about his business so efficiently.

As this was hardly a quality game, set scrummages abounded and so the pressure on the Stags, always scrambling to get their own ball away, and, losing a few, mounted. More problems arrived with prop Sam Glasson’s binning for a blatant offside, which also handed Gravesend a penalty duly converted.

The home side then scored a second try immediately afterwards – by the simple expedient of inserting the full back into the line and all too easily outflanking the Stags’ very narrow defence. They accordingly went into half time deservedly ahead 13-6 and increased their lead not long afterwards with another penalty.

In many ways one had to admire the players in the Stags’ front row’s struggle with adversity, and there was a sense that this was appreciated by the team elsewhere as there was a mini rally as the pack at least raised other aspects of its game with the pick and go much in evidence . There were a number of rampaging runs too with Chris Endersby particularly prominent and he deservedly finished off a series mini-rucks by stretching to go over and reducing the home side’s advantage to 16-11 with twenty minutes to go.

But again it was the home side which soon extended its lead as a consequence of further defensive frailty, benefiting to the extent of a converted try : 23–11.

Having just switched off, the Stags decided they would switch on again and - after putting the home side under some intense pressure - eventually it told, with winger Phil O’ Leary squirming through under the posts after the forwards had laid siege to make it 23-18. But a lot of time had been eaten up and there were now just minutes remaining.

That score would have delivered a bonus point at least of course and there was, theoretically, the sniff of what would have been a wholly improbable and - it would have had to be said - wholly undeserved victory.

But, sadly, there was little indication that the Stags ever considered that a serious possibility. Instead they switched off again and - in the space of the final three minutes – they managed to concede two further tries and thereby ensure that the scoreline was a much more faithful reflection of the afternoon’s proceedings as a whole.

It is worthwhile recording that, in losing this game, CS Rugby extended its unenviable record of never having won a game at level 5 when a female referee has officiated. Well, they certainly could have no issues with the official on this occasion. This was one of the most sympathetically refereed encounters that your reporter has seen for a long time and I, and I am sure the rest of CS Rugby 1863 and indeed Gravesend too who were most complimentary, wish Claire Hodnett* every success in forwarding her rugby refereeing career in the future.

CS Rugby 1863 scorers:

Tries:

Endersby
O’Leary
Con : Gore

Pens : Gore (2)

*Referee Claire Hodnett refereed France v Scotland in the RBS Womens Six Nations at Stade Eric Durand, Paris on 4 February.