25th April 2010
Anchorians v Sheppey Kent Salver Final
Sheppey finally get revenge
on
Anchorians in the Kent Salver Final
Both teams travelled to Old
Elthamians on Sunday for the final of the Kent Salver. It was inevitable that Sheppey would be up
for revenge following two strong defeats by Anchorians through the preceding
season. The Sheppey team, bolstered by
their semi-professional players arrived from ‘The Ditch’ with powerful plays
and well rehearsed moves culminating in strong runs that we just couldn’t seem
to stop. It didn’t help when our
talisman, Skipper Adam Davison was injured and taken off within 90-seconds of
the kick off following a 30-metre run up the wing before being bundled into
touch with the tackler landing on the side of his knee resulting in Brett
Little coming on as his replacement.
Strong plays by Kenton Parbutt, Chris Everest, Mick McLorn, Ben Davison
and Ryan Dowling kept them at bay until Little gave away a penalty for being offside
to enable Sheppey to take an early lead with a well placed kick just inside the
22 box. Anchs conceded the 3-points but
came back fighting with Wayne English and Alistair Parker, now skipper building
powerful plays to drive the Sheppey team back at into their half. Despite the run of play Sheppey retaliated
and fought back with a string run to score their first converted try making the
score now 0-10. Paul Evans took the
restart but sliced the ball resulting in a scrum on the half way line. Anchs fought hard in the scrum and the move was
converted to a free kick. Rob Small took
a quick kick and fed the ball out to Craig Whiting who, with Ben Davison in
support ran through to get the pair to within spitting distance of the try line
before going to ground. Parker picked up
the ball and made a couple of extra yards before off loading to Pat Richardson
who dropped the ball forward resulting in a scrum on the 5-metre line for
Sheppey. The ball came out quickly to the surprise of the Sheppey scrum half
and the loose ball was picked up by Rob Small who dove over the line to
register Anchs first try which was converted by Parbutt to make the score
7-10. Now revitalised Anchs were chasing
every l with relish but Sheppey’s specialist player continued to make a big
impression in the game allowing Sheppey to barge through our defences at every
opportunity and finally the pressure paid off with them scoring another
converted try just before the half was completed to make it 7-17 at the change
over.
Anchs made adjustments at half
time with Richardson was replaced by Andy Pritchard in the scrum but Richardson
came back on later when Hooker Gareth Knight was forced off injured. Right through the second half Anchorians
never gave up with Ryan Dowling, Dave Hadris, Davison, Pritchard, Everest,
Parbutt and Small placing their bodies on the line to try and gain some
additional points. James Brindley,
English, Parker and Craig Whiting huge in the line outs. We made enough of an impression to get to
within inches of the opposition score line but just could convert the visits to
their 22 into points and Sheppey continued to run roughshod over the Anchs and
the final score of 10-29. The score didn’t reflect the effort put in by the
whole Anchorians team.
Head Coach Alex Browne stated,
“It was an amazing game to watch and I am pleased for the whole team to have
got this far. It’s a shame that we
couldn’t continue our winning streak against Sheppey. All of our guys worked their socks off in
this game. Its sad to say but the loss
of the Skipper Adam Davison was a huge one.
Not only is he the skipper but he is also an impressive ground
maker. His loss was felt by the whole
team so early in the match.”
Report by Clive Davison