17th April 2010

Erith v Anchorians (Kent Salver semi-final cup match)

Once again Erith seemed more intent on fighting each other than playing against a serious depleted Anchs side in the Kent Salver semi-final at Erith on Saturday.  That said, they put up a spirited performance and put Anchs under pressure from the off.  Mick McLune received the ball well from the kick off and took the ball back at the attacking side before going to ground.  Quick work by Erith resulted in turnover ball and a quick kick to touch made the home team 20 metres to touch.  Anchs won the line out and, setting up a driving maul made 20 metres before it collapsed and the ball was fed out to Kenton Parbutt who, attacking through the centre lost the ball forward in a tackle resulting in a scummage deep into Erith territory.  The referee was having no mucking about n the scrums and, thanks to an early shove by Erith he awarded a free kick to Anchs. A quick kick took Anchs forward toward the try line until good defensive work turned the ball over and the Erith fly half booted the ball back downfield.  Fullback Adam Davison caught the ball cleanly and returned the ball into Erith territory with a well placed kick up field.  Play continued backwards and forward until a lineout resulting in a driving maul by Anchs allowed Pat Richardson to drop over the line to score Anchs first points of the game with a try which was unconverted.  Anchs continued to put pressure on the Erith line and following an extensive period of play we were awarded a penalty was awarded just in front of the posts which was converted to 3-points with a well placed kick by Parbutt to take the score to 0-8 at half time.

From the sidelines we could all hear Head Coach Alex Brown expounding on what would happen if we don’t wake up.  With the restart now pending Anchs stepped up with his wise words ringing in their ears. Determined not to let him down came back with renewed vigour with Wayne English (spelt G O D so he tells me) making good ground with ball in hand after the ball was ripped from the catchers arms by Alistair Parker. However, Erith didn’t read the same game plan and came back quickly with an impressive run using quick ball producing a gap in the Anchs defence to place the ball in the corner for their first try bring the score to 5-8.  Things looked decidedly dodgy for Anchs for the next 20 minutes with Erith piling into every move and taking advantage of poor plays by Anchs.  Only superb defensive tackles by Phil Dedman, James Brindley, Tim Banner-Martin, Chris Everest, Adam and Ben Davison prevented them getting over the try line.   Anchs suddenly woke up and quick ball across the field allowed Banner-Martin to run 30-metres before being tackled but he had already offloaded to Ben Davison who got to within 5-metres before he was bundled into touch.  The line out was set up and a driving maul moving swiftly allowed Dedman to drop over the line to register Anchs second try.  Parbutt setup for the conversion attempt but despite a good clean kick the ball bounced off the upright leaving the score 5-13.  The restart, caught by Anchs was booted back deep into Erith territory with Parbutt picking up loose ball and charging toward the try line with an impressive run before being bought down by a high tackle. Erith got away with the tackle and made the most of the protestations of the Anchs team by spotting a gap which their winger used to run the entire length of the pitch and score their second try which was unconverted.  With the score line now 10-13 we were all concerned that Anchs we facing their first defeat against Erith this season but fortunately decent within the Erith ranks bought them serious problems and bought the game to an end with the score line unchanged.  The decent continued after the whistle was blown with two of the Erith players storming off the pitch refusing to acknowledge the win by Anchs.  It bought a shameful end to a spirited performance by Erith who had improved significantly from our first meeting back in September last year. 
 
After the game I was stopped by a Dutch gentleman who had watched the pitch from the sidelines. It was the first game of rugby he had watched.  He commented that the game had been fast moving but couldn’t understand why the two players had stormed off at the end while the rest of the players applauded each other and shook hands.  Perhaps a little concorde was achieved in anglo-dutch relationships but probably not in Anchs-Erith.

With the league season over the next game is the Salver Final against Old Elthamians (address below) on Sunday 25th April 2010 away.

Old Elthamians RFC

Foxbury Avenue

Perry Street

Chistlehurst
Kent
BR7 6HA

Report written by Clive Davison