Bonus point consolation as Stags slip into relegation zone.

Another week, another game, another somewhat familiar looking score-line but as the Stags slipped into the bottom three in the National Division 3 table there was at least the minor consolation of a four try bonus point, the first point gathered now in four weeks.
Again there had been enforced changes to the team although there was a welcome return for Paddy O’ Halloran even if centre is not exactly his preferred position. Others in the team had done well to make it back from graduation ceremonies in the wilds of the far north and the like. James Houstoun took over the reins at out-half with Matt Killeen switching to full-back.
Although a Gravesend try on ten minutes was swiftly answered in kind by an Anthony Lavea effort it was already fairly clear that the home side’s pack was going to be its usual handful and, although they did not have things entirely their own way , even losing a scrum against the head in each half, the weight of possession was always likely to determine the outcome.
It was a cold and windy day too and - with that wind in CS’s favour and blowing the length of the pitch - to have any sort of chance at all CS surely had to be ahead at half-time and by some margin. Instead they turned round 20-7 down and if there was a seminal moment or moments in that half it was probably when , with the score 10-7 CS lost their own line-out, having nudged a penalty into the most exposed corner, to a throw taken by the wind, quickly repeated on their next throw still in the home side’s twenty-two. Captain and open side Joe Clarke’s sin binning - having taken one for the team for persistent offending - still had a few minutes to run as the teams bolted for the warmth of the changing rooms at half-time.
The first ten minutes of the second half saw a relentless assault on the Stags’ line and it was to their considerable credit that it was not breached again earlier and unsurprising that, when it finally was, it should have been courtesy of a penalty try awarded at scrum time, the referee having clearly formed the view that the dominant scrum should be rewarded at last for its efforts.
The next fifteen minutes was a much looser affair which suited the Stags better and so the next two tries went their way, the first when full-back Matt Killeen popped up as the extra man and the second when prop replacement James Buncle burrowed over from short range. With quarter of an hour to go and the score 27-19 there was perhaps just a glimmer of hope but a second CS sin binning, this time of prop Nick Lovatt, followed by a Gravesend penalty, snuffed this out but that the home side should opt for the kick was an indication that at that time it was just as concerned about the possibility, albeit no doubt pretty remote, of a further come-back as about pressing on immediately for a fourth try.
That sensible approach stood them in good stead, however, as they got their bonus point try with five minutes to go, quickly followed by a fifth to ice their cake. CS had had to rearrange because of injuries but were game to the last and scrum-half Anthony Lavea’s second at the death was at least enough to earn the Stags a bonus point which they just about deserved for their contribution to an entertaining nine try game in the conditions.

CS Rugby 1863 scorers :

Tries:
Lavea (2)
Killeen
Buncle

Cons:
Killeen (2)