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Dartfordians RFC Dartfordians RFC

Club Rank: 50

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Dartfordians Saints

Shooters Hill

T Fords, L Couchman (3), M Sealy

Tries

C Freeman (2)

Conversions

Sat 25 Nov 14:30 - Kent Metropolitan League - Spitfire Full time

Report

Highlights

Selection

League round up

Great league win for Saints

By Dave Phillips

Darts 4’s, took on Shoots 1’s in a league fixture

Darts 4’s, took on Shoots 1’s in a league fixture at the Memorial ground on Saturday. The darts team had a number of new faces in it and some returning to the fold. A slightly earlier kick off meant that the pre-match organisation work was cut short, so again we would need to work out who went where during the game.
Darts started well moving the ball and looking in good form, with Toby Forbes (I think) crossing for an early try. Shoots looked a bit rattled and in the opening exchanges darts were playing well, clearing rucks and moving the point of attack.
Lewis Couchman returned from injury and had a stormer, scoring a hatrick of tries, two from rolling mauls and one from a close quarters pick and go. Darts line out was going well with John O’Brien and Matty Edwards dominating this element of the set piece.
Despite this being an area of strength for Shoots, the Darts scrum was solid and Couchman took an early ball against the head. Unfortunately this parity was lost when Paul Chadler was forced to retire in the first half with a shoulder injury.
Conor Freeman played well at flyhalf, moving the ball on the rare occasion it went past 2 phases. Matt Sealy ran some excellent lines in attack and was very solid in Defence. Toby Forbes and Paul Brown both put in some big hits in defence with the ever energetic Scotty Telford chasing every half chance.
The darts defence was so solid that eventually Shoots were forced on a number of occasions, to opt for taking shots at goal, despite the fact they were 14 points down.
Unfortunately, the second half saw the game deteriorate into a non-event, with none stop complaining from the shoots team to the referee, eventually resulting in 2 of their players and their coach being shown yellow cards. The nonsense continued with more ‘tough talk’ and peacocking / pigeon chesting, Darts eventually got drawn into the nonsense, when Ricky Phillips was served an open hand slap to the faces, resulting in him understandably irate. The game stagnated with every break down becoming a school yard slagging match and reached its lowest ebb, when the Darts capt staggy, who had been appealing for calm all game, become a 3 mile hero as well. Fortunately for staggy, the shoots lads did not know he is a massive wuss.
Frustratingly Darts left 30 points out on the pitch on Saturday and although it was a rare league win, it was diminished by the crappy way it was played. A game to be parked in the bowls of history as we move onto to another challenging game against the undefeated Beckenham 4’s next Saturday.
MoTM award: Lewis ‘Hatrick’ Couchman.