1st XV home victory against Faversham

2 Wins on the bounce

Dartford Valley hosted faversham for what was set to be a close fixture with both teams having 1 win under their belts.

The game started in favour of faversham with their big pack trying to cut through a very solid valley defence. Eventually they found their way over valleys line for the first score of the game.

A few choice words were exchanged behind the posts and valley returned to the pitch keen not let it slide. With some strong tight Carries from captain Ben and his pack valley found themselves deep in faversham territory. A quick thinking Chris Burke tapped a penalty a shipped the ball to Ryan Francis who gave a short ball to Tom Castleton as he charged through the faversham defence to crash in a try under the sticks.

Faversham hit back hard with the 8 breaking through on a number of occasions. With valley giving away a few penalties they were pinned to their line. faversham executed a catch and drive from a lineout they burst their way through to get the try.

Valley fought back and really piled on the pressure leading to multiple penalties being awarded. The ever ready Chris Burke tapped a fast penalty and bobbed and weaved through faversham to score a solo try.

The faversham pack did not let off the gas and were causing valley problems. They were stringing multiple phases together when Tom Castleton had used his 6th sense and shot out from the line to intercept a wide pass. He found himself galloping down the pitch with no one to stop him. With every stride the posts became more unattainable as Tom started to realise his fitness isn't up to scratch. The faversham 22 turned to quicksand as Tom had perished all energy sources and a quick thinking defence halted him before the line. Captain Ben got the ball and with some white line fever and went for the big crash only to lose the ball.

With tries from both sides including steve mac and dan martin faversham were leading. Great phase play saw valley again in sight of the whitewash. An eager faversham defense showed no way through for the valley boys. The ball got passed out to steve mac who was filling in at flank hoping to send the ball through the hands of the valley backline. Faversham had read it early and rush up to close down the space. With some quick thinking and composure steve mac found his inner fly half vision and set ball to foot over the faversham defence to the far left corner with pin point accuracy and keiran yates finished it off over the line to see the score at 31-27 to valley. with 10+ minutes on the clock Faversham found a second wind and was doing everything in their power to cross the whitewash. But a focused and determined valley defence held their line and with a few valley players managing to hold up a faversham player man and ball the final whistle blew to give valley the bonus point win.

Man of the match

Kieran Phillips - yet again another solid performance.

Hammer

Ifan Roberts- tackling every man in his path

DOD

Ben Orcan- for spilling the ball.