Crisp air and blue skies met both teams Sunday morning, a fine day for rugby! The Deal & Bettes boys had all fixtures called off since before Christmas so were keen to get the match minutes rolling again, warm up and run throughs over, Captains tossed, Darts won, and Deal kicked long in to the opponents half. A good chase was met with immediate battle around the receiver. The Deal boys made headway but were thwarted in their early attacks although we managed to play mostly in the opponent’s half. Sloppy handling, slow ball and a lack of “spark” frustrated the home coaches, but a solid press in defence allowed our 10, Jonjo Walkin the opportunity for a lightening intercept in mid field, he just had the length of the pitch from our 22 to cover, Darts almost at his heels he dotted down for Deals first, 5-0 at 8 minutes.
The remaining minutes of the first half continued along a similar theme, we remained solid in our defence and halted numerous Dartfordian attempts, but we just couldn’t find out own rhythm in attack, and when we did create opportunities, they were fouled by our own errors. Half time, 5-0.
After some encouraging words from the coaching staff, the boys ran back out with a mission to seal the game off. Fortunately, as they so often do, the boys took the advice on board and upped their game. Desire increased, intent sharpened, and attitudes focused. Darts were no walk over however, and they defended robustly, but 13 minutes in they succumbed to the deal pressure and strength at he break down, as Cass Weaver picked form near their try line and charged over for a well-deserved score, 10-0.
The boys in black were soon in the visitors 22 again, now slinging the ball around with more ease and appetite, but frequently met by solid lines, this didn’t slow our lads down though, and a defence splitting run from Cass Weaver, when finally bound up by multiple defenders, was kept alive by the close support on his shoulder from Ronnie Victory who collected and skid over for Deals next score, 15-5.
An error at the restart was then followed by a soft try from the visitors, finishing the day 15-5. A rusty performance from the home side, but given their recent uncontrollable lack of game time, not entirely unexpected. However, we celebrate a win in our first Kent game in the top group, we’ll be at it this week correcting a few elements in preparation for our next fixture, on on!
A few mentions;
Scorers; Walkin, Weaver, Victory
Darts elected their Deal & Betteshanger player Ryan Long as Man of the Match
D&B Coaches also praise;
Arthur Warner for his intensity and solid all-round performance for the whole game
Bobbi Mclemon-Moore for his solid Debut, and robust defence and tackling
Ronnie Victory for a solid defence game and support play, plus his control
Cass Weaver for good discipline, and energy in both defence and attack