By Colin Whiteley
Thanet Wanderers Twos 10 – 43 Rye RFC
Frost had caused the postponement of most of the rugby scheduled on Saturday in Kent, including Wanderers’ first XV’s visit to Cranbrook. East Kent was the exception, with two matches played at Thanet and nearby Deal’s games also went ahead.
Rye were Champions of the Kent B rural league last season and are presently top of Kent A rural, having lost only one game this season. Wanderers 2s are in fifth place in the ten team league and the away fixture was lost 45-5. Captain, Tom Stevens, was not available as he recuperates after a head injury assessment, Joe Carlier stood in for him, his front row partners were Luke Browning at hooker and Mike Morris at tighthead.
Both of the Doody brothers are usually scrum halves but they paired up at half back with Callum at Ten and Leon at nine. It was good to see former first team skipper, Adam Gaddes, back in the second row where he partnered Matt Jacobs.
The frost may have relented but was replaced by a bitterly cold wind as Rye kicked off up the slope in front of a decent crowd including a good sprinkling from East Sussex. Eight minutes in, the visitors sent a penalty to seven metres out and touched down a couple of minutes later, just right of the posts. Minutes later Rye scored their second try in a very similar position and again converted for a 14-0 lead.
Wanderers responded well and built pressure down Rye’s right before Joe Carlier touched down to make the score 14-5. A good individual try with a nice conversion extended Rye’s lead before Will Mahoney responded for Wanderers touching down their second try on the cusp of half-time. There was no conversion into the strong wind and Wanderers trailed 21-10 at the break.
Wanderers played with the stiffening breeze behind them for the second half and enjoyed an early period of pressure but a lost scrum at a crucial point and balls dropped by frozen hands, plus good defence from Rye, kept the score unchanged until, with around a quarter of the match remaining, the visitors broke clear and ran in from distance outflanking the home defence and touched down under the posts.
A very similar try, with ten minutes remaining, took Rye clear 33-10.Two further tries in the closing minutes, against a tiring Thanet side, were not converted and meant that Rye had won 43-10. The coaches’ choice as Man of the Match was young scrum half Leon Doody for his combative performance against strong opposition.
Next week the 2s will travel to play Medway, the first XV are at home to Heathfield and the 3s will entertain Sittingbourne. All games will kick off at 2 PM.
SQUAD: Joe Carlier (c), Luke Browning, Mike Morris, Adam Gaddes, Matt Jacobs, Oskar Wallace, Finn Shingles, Jake McGee, Leon Doody, Callum Doody, Harrison Elks, Will Mahoney, Lewis Downer, Josh Jury, Ewan Maclean. Replacements: Tom Welsh, Joe Near, Ollie Quinney, Henry Mirams.
Thanet Wanderers 3s 10 – 29 Vigo 2s
Wanderers threes have had a difficult season with calls from the senior sides depleting their selection pools.
Team Manager, Bill Wallace, was delighted to have a near full house for this fixture which was one of the few games played in Kent, due to the hard frost of recent days.