Old Gravesendians 42-5 Gillingham Anchorians

The players looked much more relaxed with the burdens of the play-off game behind them and were full of running, despite the exertions of the previous day.

There were some absentees for this match including Richard Oxtoby, Lawrence Coleman, Mark Lockwood, Alex Cave and Matthew Pink.

Lock Andrew Day enjoyed a run out for the firsts and had a fine game.

Rob McMillan was welcomed back at hooker with Steve Jarrett on the flank, Pat Crosskerry at lock and Tom Whiskin at prop.

All contributed fully to another successful day out.

Anchorians’ pack had a say in the first quarter driving up the hill, but it was the Old Gs’ backs who set the game alight with some great inter-passing and support play.

They were denied two early tries through forward passes but they had showed enough quality to hint at what was in prospect.

Two nicely worked tries before half-time set the ball rolling.

Ricky Harding touched down in the corner after some clever switching and dummying by his colleagues gave him some space.

The try was converted from near the touchline by Michael Hodge, who had a great day with the boot converting all the tries including one by drop goal.

Try number two was more of the same.

Good lineout ball was secured by Croskerry, the ball was released quickly and Dave Boyer ran a good line through the Gillingham defence.

He dummied an outside pass and instead passed inside to Holdstock who ran in the try, converted by Hodge.

Old Gs were reduced to 14 men with a sin-binning but their defence was rock solid, holding out until relieved by the half-time whistle.

Anchorians were first to show in the second half.

Their scrum caused problems all game with some good, well constructed driving mauls, which Old Gs struggled to defend.

From one such maul, the ball was laid on a plate for fly-half Matt Pike to touch down, although he missed the simple conversion.

Anchorians attempts to get back in the game were short lived as Old Gs ran in two quick tries.

The first came from Chris Bassett’s quickly taken tap penalty, a move in which he had good support from Mark Thompson, Mark Fenton-Smith and Hodge.

Hodge slipped a pass behind his back to Marcus D’Cunha, who completed a great move.

Centre Fenton-Smith then initiated a second try by hammering his opposite number in the tackle forcing him to spill the ball.

It was scooped up and with some sharp passing and running, especially from Holdstock, Boyer latched onto the final pass to run in the try.

A hard tackle badly hurt an Anchorian player, who required medical assistance and an ambulance to attend.

As he could not be moved, play was resumed on the adjoining third team pitch, which was rather smaller than the main field.

The Anchorian kick off was too long on the narrow strip and from the resultant scrum back on halfway, Old Gs added another try.

Harding took off with some zest and the move was finished by D’Cunha touching down under the posts.

Captain Coomber finished off the scoring after a Bassett break.

Coomber had to fend off two large tacklers before managing to stretch over the line for the touchdown.

A final score was only missed when Coomber’s pass was dropped only a couple of metres from the line with the defence already shredded.

This was the final move of a thoroughly entertaining match and booked a final date with Sittingbourne on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

It is possible the game may have to be moved from Old Gs’ home ground as the cricket season is due to start on the same day, although the club are hopeful the match will take place in Gravesend.