Deacons Match Report

Medway 4’s vs Canterbury Deacons 17 Jan 26 Match Report

By the infamous Pete Demery

It’s difficult to score if you don’t have the ball……

Being possibly the most charitable team in the entirety of English rugby and to avoid an away walk over Canterbury hosted Medway at home for a second time this season as their pitches were unplayable.
Not realising that it’s polite to reciprocate our goodwill, the top of the table team decided to come to the City (the only City in Kent now) and practise scoring tries.

On paper we had a strong team but last moment changes and regular players out/away saw us cobble together forward pack with many playing out of position.
All season we’ve had a reliably strong scrum only challenged by a couple of heavy teams, so watching from the sideline without being able to throw some boots on and get involved was horrible.
Our backs line up was superb with pace, depth and handling ability to challenge any team in the league – our issue was getting our hands on the ball to release them.

We all know you can’t polish a turd, the scoreline speaks for itself. Medway had a game plan, they executed it extremely well and played to their strengths. In the first half the Deacons probably had the ball less than 5 minutes across the 40, there were flashes of brilliance but they fell short through lack of composure, confidence or both.
The end of the half was welcome relief with the Deacons behind requiring Haribo and a chat about where we could improve.

The second half saw some changes; and staring down the barrel of a nilling in our own back yard some tactical changes brought a higher level of intensity to the start.
Finally with some ball in hand the Deacons were able to disrupt and use the pace of the back line to go forward. A loose ball, some excellent footballing skills from Ed Exley and Denton dotted down to get us off the mark.
Captain & Birthday boy (21 again) Dan Head added the 2 with a tricky kick. The boys had their heads up again, there was the faintest whiff of a comeback on the cards……

Like a fart in a sauna the whiff quickly dissipated, Medway running another try past us with simple straight forward rugby. Nothing about the game plan involved flair or panache, just simple route one smash it up the middle style brutality. It worked though. Fortunately the Medway kicker was about as useful as a bald man’s comb & couldn’t get the ball anywhere near the posts to convert.
The away supporters had all the decorum of a bag of week old dog sick, chirping away without necessarily understanding the laws of the game.
So when Canterbury once again broke the Medway line and returning superstar Jake Upward got across the try line and Dan once again added the extras the Deacons hard work had paid off & the opposition supporters were quietened for a minute.

Medway finished with a flourish. The last try was hard to swallow but the Deacons were exhausted after 80 minutes of ferocious tackling having been subjected to relentless punishment. As always we stuck at it and gave everything for the badge and our team mates. We will bounce back.

Enjoy the win Medway, we hope it makes you happy. Dear lord, what a sad little life Medway. You ruined my day entirely just so you could have a little win.

POtM – Dan Head. For rallying the troops, kicking the points & leading from the front.
Mentions- Freddie Vion (tackling all over the place) James Newman, Matt Burchell for stepping up and in to all sorts of areas.
Also Dylan, Rob & Freddie again for playing all sorts of positions backs & forwards and Steve Rutt for putting on a shift for the first half against a horrible Medway pack.

We miss you Brad. Get well soon Ronnie & Matt.