6th March 2010
Anchorians v Sittingbourne
With a team depleted by injuries
and non-availability Anchs drive to Sittingbourne was still full of
anticipation for a close but winning performance following last week superb
showing. It was indeed a close match but
not all expectations were achieved.
Sittingbourne kicked off and piled forward chasing the ball which A’s caught
well and were prepared to run back.
However, Bourn were quick to the ball and bought the carrier to ground
but then gave away a cheap penalty which enable A’s to clear the lines;
however, the ball failed to find touch on the fall. Swift chasing by Ben Davison and Richie
Collins bought about an error by the Bourn player and enabled us to tidy up the
loose ball and continue forward until a penalty was awarded to Bourn for a
player using his hands in a ruck. Bourn
again breathed a sigh of relief kicked the ball well up field. A’s came back at pace and pushed back getting
to within metres of the try line before the Bourn defence regrouped to stop the
forward march. Anthony O’Brien attempted
a cheeky drop goal but the ball was charged down. The loose ball was kicked forward but just
rolled over the Bourn try line to be touched down by their Prop for a 22 drop
out. A quick kick was taken and for the
first time they looked menacing as they used the momentum to get back to A’s
half. Desperate defence kept them clear
of the line but an error by winger Brett Little resulted in him being binned
for 10-minutes and Bourn getting 3-points for a penalty through the posts for
the lead. Bourn, with the man advantage
began to apply pressure using a wide game and spent the next 5-minutes camped
in the A’s half but strong defence prevented them gaining any advantage during
the penalty period. They came close with
a rolling maul stalling between the posts before claims were heard for a try
but the Ref decided that the ball was held up and returned Bourn to an earlier
penalty advantage 5-metre out.
Unfortunately for them they lost possession and A’s were able to clear
the lines with an excellent defensive kick up field. Bourn won the line out but then knocked the
ball on leading to a scrum which A’s won with Richie Kyle coming out with ball in
hand. Supported by Ben Davison Kyle ran
straight at the Bourn defence forcing panic and popped the pass to Davison for
him to finish the last 20-metres to touch down to the left of the posts. Collins converted to put at 4-points in
front. Bourn were now desperate to get back into contention and putting
pressure on A’s forced an error in front of the posts to enable then to slide
another 3-points on the score board.
Play focused in the Bourn half for the next series of plays until from
just 4-metres out from the Sittingbourne line their Flanker intercepted a loose
ball and ran the entire length of the pitch to place the ball beneath the posts
for a converted try. Now on the back
foot A’s chased the restart kick with George Webb lifting the ball sweetly from
the hands of the Bourn catcher to run another 5-metres into their half before
going to ground from where a penalty was awarded to A’s for a player
infringement at the breakdown. Collins
successfully converted the penalty into another 3-points. Both sides began to make errors as each tried
to secure points against the opposition resulting in line outs, scrums and
penalties to each side with the half ending at 13-10 in the home teams favour
The second half started well for
the Bourn with a driving maul setting up a converted try in the corner which
was well converted to really put the pressure onto A’s. Attempting to make their way back into the
match A’s camped inside the Bourn half with play after play being penalised by
the referee and Bourn and despite many individual runs by Collins, Davison,
Webb and Pritchard no points were achieved.
Line out ball wasn’t working for A’s with scrum after scrum being
awarded to the home team for throws not being straight. Despite this the forwards maintained momentum
on the Bourn lines and inevitably the pressure paid off with a fine try being
awarded to Richie Collins scoring and converting a try to bring the score to
20-17. A’s could now smell potential
victory and continued to press forward to score the points desperately needed
until another mistake gave Bourn the opportunity to sneak another try into the
corner which was not converted to make the gap 8 points. Despite being more that one converted score
behind A’s dug in and redoubled their efforts with excellent runs by Wayne
English and Andy Pritchard giving good ball to Adam and Ben Davison but the
score was now fixed with the referee blowing the final whistle for a score of
25-17. An excellent performance from
Anchs but a few too many penalties, a sin binning and handling errors lead to two
easy tries by the home team and ultimately, the game.
Anchorians Man of Match was
awarded to Richie Kyle and George Webb.
The next league game is on
Saturday 13th March away at Ashford.
Report by Clive Davison