Pilgrims Take Revenge

Crowborough 15 Canterbury Pilgrims 21

by Dan Gill

Pilgrims opened their Counties 1 Kent title defence with a tough fixture at Steel cross where they lost their 17-game winning run towards the end of last season against a Crowborough side who have been unbeaten at home for over a year. This time they took revenge
The opening minutes were even until Crowborough capitalised on a clear knock on missed by the official to score under the posts making the conversion a formality, giving the home side a 7-0 lead.
The Pilgrims drew level quickly after a well worked line out on the Crow’s 22 saw openside flanker Jake Dengate pick a good line, make a strong run and crash over for the try which fly half Tom McMann converted.
Crowborough were trying to apply pressure but were met with a defensive wall that was proving difficult to break down, with tackles flying in from forwards and backs alike. The home side were the next to score, however, but only after Canterbury were reduced to 14 after hard hitting back row forward Henry Kenny was adjudged to have infringed at the breakdown and received a yellow card. Sonny Trew-Neville had to step into the scrum from the wing and Crowborough utilised good handling skills to exploit the space he had left and score in the corner to make it 12-7 at half time.
After the restart and having returned to a full complement, Pilgrims looked to reassert themselves and came close to scoring after a strong run from full back Jack Cohen, but simple handling errors and mistakes were making the side masters of their own downfall. Crowborough punished some poor breakdown work with a penalty goal before the Pilgrims came back strongly. Captain Alex Evans lead from the front all day with some thunderous tackling and direct running and it was he who had the ball over the line out wide after good work from forwards and backs. He broke from a maul and dived over but the referee saw a cynical infringement in the process and awarded a penalty try.
The home side came close to scoring shortly afterwards, but some dogged defence on their own goal line saw Pilgrims scrum half Hector Valladares latching onto the ball and forcing the penalty after stopping numerous drives.
Pilgrims then had their best spell of the game and an organised driving maul gave the backs a platform and they moved the ball from one side of the pitch to the other to send wing Adrian Geddes over in the corner. Jack Cohen stepped up to slot the touchline conversion to give his side the lead for the first time with eight minutes remaining.
A boisterous home crowd did their best to spur Crow’s into a response, but Pilgrims defence continued to drive them back and only a last ditch tackle on prop James Everatt stopped a further Canterbury score. The Pilgrims showed great determination to avenge last season’s big loss and end Crowborough’s fine home record.