Match Report – Folkestone 2’s v Deacons 20.12

Deacons dominate in every way (except the scoreline)…..

It’s tricky to write an objective match report given the final score.
Regular readers will know how thrilled we were to assist our last opponents with a few players in order to have a balanced game of rugby. Our players are a real credit to our club and we want to represent true rugby values. Seemingly it’s not for every club in our league.

With a large proportion of our regular team playing with us while they are at Uni in Canterbury, fixtures close to the holidays are often hard to get players for. So 14 of us travelled to Folkestone buoyed by our last result and the excitement of getting out for a last game before Christmas.

Really surprisingly the opposition Capt decided he wouldn’t match our numbers from his 19+ strong squad & we began the game a man short against a reasonably competent Folkestone side. I can only assume he got a parking ticket in Canterbury some years ago, or he doesn’t enjoy the Christmas market or the traffic around the city. Either way, we Deacons went to work, slightly disgruntled but no less energised.

Folkestone drew 1st, 2nd and 3rd blood. Come to think of it. They didn’t stop scoring. All of them around the fringes. Our defence was strong and well organised and all Folkestone could do was use the extra man (the same extra man) to put tries in down the wing.
Fortunately the opposition kicker couldn’t hit a fat lad in an alleyway so the extra points weren’t going on.

As we tend too, we got across the line. Working a try through grit and determination the forwards carrying really well, our 9, Sam Roud hitting breakdowns quickly and moving the ball to Dan Head at 10 who is always reliably excellent. The backs worked phenomenally hard to cover the space when needed against some fast opponents.
Captain American & Rob Horan at 13 & 12 respectively made some huge runs to release Ed & Dylan on the wing while Matt Capper at full back had his work cut out covering all that space in defence.

The pack was no different.
Having lost a man earlier in the day (sending all our best to James) we had no choice but to change tac and operate as a 7 with Hayden Prett attacking from 8 or defending at 7 depending on who had the feed at scrum time.

Our forwards were unmatched. Contesting scrum after scrum, dominant winning balls against the head and securing our own. The home team cycled through a couple of hookers and sent some replacement props in across the course of the game, yet nothing prevented the display of power and aggression coming through the City pack.

Remarkably, when we lost young talent Callum Townshend to injury we were forced to scrimmage 6 vs 8. We thought it might be a tall order, but – channeling the Deacons spirit and pride we dominated the Stones scrum pushing them back over 10 metres.
That was the catalyst for 10 minutes of the best performance the Deacons have put in all season. With our mate on the sidelines cheering us on every player on the pitch threw everything at it to show we were down but not beaten.

Ethan Tighe, Craig, Riggsy, and Brad were instrumental in setting pods and carrying hard to move through phases so Dan & the backs could move the ball across the pitch side to side.

An unlucky bounce stopped a hard charging attack and our day was done.

13 v 15 is always going to be tough. The opposition rolling subs makes it harder. I’ve no doubt who won the game despite the points. Canterbury were better in every way, never complaining & never letting the bias affect our rugby. We look forward to welcoming the oppo to Canterbury next year!

Watch the second part of the season. With performances as we’ve seen the last few games it’s going to be exciting. There’s a great feeling around this team, the steps we are making and the cohesion we’ve gained lately.

Thank you gents for the game. For the pride you have in yourselves & our team.
Merry Christmas & I’ll see you in 2026!