Match Report Versus Thanet 25th September 2005

Ashford Recover Momentum After Slow Start

Thanet 5 - Ashford 27
Ashford started slowly and seemed to find it difficult to shake out the journey to Broadstairs. Early in the match, a lack of concentration saw the Ashford back line fail to cover a high kick. When the ball bounced into the Ashford in-goal, a Thanet centre followed up and dived onto the loose ball to open the scores with an unconverted try.

The shock of going behind brought Ashford into life. From the restart the Ashford forwards drove into Thanet territory. Eventually a scrum was forced on the Thanet 5 metre line and fly half Louis Burdon intercepted a loose pass and touched down to level the scores.

Despite the equalising score Ashford still failed to demonstrate their full potential. However, just before half time hooker Ashford forced s series of 5 metre scrums. From the resulting pressure Ashford secured the ball at a maul and Hooker Patrick MacEnri was driven over by the pack to score the team’s second try.

Half time Thanet 5 – Ashford 10
The second half saw a big improvement in the performance of the Ashford pack. This meant that most of the half was played in Thanet territory. 5 minutes into the half, from a scrum 10 metres out, No. 8 Chris Albrow picked up from the base and dived over to open up a two try gap.

The rest of the match was played in heavy rain. As the conditions deteriorated the Thanet defence resorted to kicking the ball to relieve the Ashford pressure. One of the kicks was retrieved by winger Harry Atkins who ran into space before feeding centre Grant Noremac who broke through the defence and dotted down. Noremac re-appeared on the score sheet a few minutes later when Ashford broke from their own half and created space for Noremac to touch down under the posts. This final score was converted by Burdon to conclude the match at 27-5. Player of the week was Karl Clayton. Next Sunday – 2nd October – Ashford Under 13s entertain Whitstable at home.