Match report – Gillingham Anchorians V CRFC Pilgrims

Gillingham Anchorians 10 Canterbury Pilgrims 27

Pilgrims stepped up their challenge for the Counties Kent 2 title with a solid victory which lifted them to second place in the league table. They took an early lead  with a try from Tom Ashley-Jones and were in front for the rest of the game.  Will Calder and Jake Upward made the try, converted by Olli Finn . Within four minutes poor defending by Pilgrims allowed the home side to get the ball out wide and score. In the strong winds a kick was never going over.    What came to mar the game was reckless tackling which too often went unpunished and with it came injuries.  Rob Knott was the first to suffer but more serious was the damage to Alex Evans as he crashed over for a try in the 20^th minute but had his afternoon cut short by a hospital visit. Will Calder, a young man with lots of potential, added a third Canterbury score to take the half time lead to 17-5  The first twenty minutes of the second half were awful, mistakes, stoppages, even the referee got injured. Then Eoin O’Donaghue received a lovely inside ball from Ross Howard and side-stepped the full back to score, Ollie missed the conversion but the bonus point had been secured. Anchorians kicked out to relieve pressure, took a quick throw in but it was intercepted by alert full back jack Weave who set his backs in motion. He then has looped around to take the ball and run through to score try number five. The last five minutes saw a yellow card handed to a home player, the first card of a game where arguably there could have been more. Ironically, it was Pilgrims who were then punished as Calder and Dan Gill were sent to the sin  bin. Canterbury must learn to keep quiet, play what is in front of them and not question the official. Anchorians took advantage with a consolation try.

Canterbury: A.Malik, E.O’Donoghue, J.Everatt, R.Knott, D.Gill, O.Finn, H.Furneaux, A.Evans, W.Calder, R.Howard, A.Geddes, J.Upward, V.Meredith, T.Ashley-Jones, J.Weaver. Replacements: B.Dunkerley, O.Ashley-Jones, F Holland-Oliver.