Old Gs bounce back from derby loss

12:47pm Tuesday 7th October 2008

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Old Gravesendians 34-12 Ashford

OLD Gravesendians returned to form after last week's disappointing defeat at Dartfordians by overcoming a rather subdued Ashford side, outscoring them by six tries to two.

Marcus and Dan D'Cuhna, Mark Thompson and Alex Cave were all back in the fold and the young Matt Johnson had his first full outing on the wing.

Old Gs were soon spreading the ball wide and Johnson was unlucky to miss out on a try when he was forced into touch-in-goal before he could ground the ball.

There was no need to dwell on the miss as Old Gs soon returned to their opponent's half and scored a good opening try.

Thompson made the break, putting Marcus D'Cunha through a gap at pace.

He drew the full back before delivering a well timed pass for Ricky Harding to score his first try.

Michael Hodge converted superbly from near the touchline to increase the lead to 7-0.

From broken play near their own line, Ashford tried to clear with a high kick downfield.

The waiting Mark Lockwood, relishing a chance to attack in open field, ran an excellent line and linked well with his backline.

The result was another run to the line for the ever-willing winger Harding, who scored his second try and increased the lead to 12-0.

As the game progressed, Gravesendians' pack gradually gained the upper hand, especially in the set scrums.

From one such scrum Old Gs drove their opponents off their own ball and Cave picked up and stormed over the try-line, brushing aside would-be tacklers as he went.

Unfortunately, Old Gs were starting to cruise, three tries to the good and with the respite of halftime beckoning.

Old Gs had certainly pushed themselves hard in the early exchanges and their effort was beginning to wane.

Ashford took advantage, setting up their rather imposing prop Tommy Murray to hit the defensive line at some pace and bash his way over for an unconverted try to make the half-time score 17-5.

The late try maybe gave Ashford some encouragement their cause was not lost.

For their part, Old Gs were determined the game should be won early on in the second half and came out with renewed intent.

Ashford defended with some skill against repeated Old Gs attacks.

They even broke out from under their own posts to run 80m, briefly threatening the home side's line.

Normal service was soon resumed with Old Gs entrenched in the Ashford half and exerting tremendous pressure.

The home pack put together a well-organised maul, which the visitors could not deal with and the result was a pushover try, touched down by Pat Croskerry.

This was quickly followed by a Hodge try, dabbed down on the line at full stretch after the centre had crashed past a number of hesitant defenders.

Again the pack had softened up their opponents before delivering up the ball for their now rampant backs to pick up the points. Richard Oxtoby converted for a commanding 29-5 lead.

Ashford kept their spirits up with another try, taking advantage of some poor first up tackling to move up-field.

A high tackle by an Old Gs player defending his line forced the referee to give the visitors a seven point penalty try and the lead was reduced to 29-12.

Old Gs came straight back.

Perfect lineout ball, a long Oxtoby pass to Marcus D'Cunha and some fine interplay between D'Cunha and Harding wrong-footed the Ashford defence.

D'Cunha outpaced the remaining defenders to score the final points and deliver a comprehensive victory with a 34-12 score line.

Ricky Harding seemed to score again after some more inter-play with D'Cunha but his effort was controversially adjudged held up over the line, so denying the winger what would have been a well deserved hat-trick.

Victory moves Old Gs up to second place in Kent One.

The competitive nature of this league is shown by the table, with four sides sitting at the top on six points and a further five teams close behind them on four points.

This weekend sees Old Gravesendians travel to one of the joint leaders, Cranbrook.

Meanwhile, the seconds lost 13-10 to Sevenoaks with Chris Bassett and Matt Wilson scoring tries for Oold Gs.

The thirds beat Sevenoaks 10-5, Doug Wilson's try converted by John Poulson, who also added a penalty.