Richard Plantagenet would have turned in his Ashford grave when Old Dunstonians squandered their chance to take the lead late in the second half, as their heavier opponents began to tire on the yellowing, wintery turf at Kinney’s Field. Hope sprung eternal when Hungarian trialist Nick Keppe crashed over under the posts to put the visitors within one score of the lead with only 10 minutes to go. As OD’s surged towards the Ashford line again, the forwards served up a winning opportunity with an overlap out wide. From a dynamic ruck, Mike Ubee’s long pass spiralled to replacement winger, J.P.Mills, who surely just had to catch and score?
As if like a bar of soap, the ball slipped effortlessly into touch and the chance, like Doc collecting subs, went begging. The defending line out was duly won and the home side not only cleared their line but summoned one final kick and chase effort that resulted in the winning try. Predictably, OD’s showed their running craft and excellence too late, responding with a bonus point score but the final whistle confirmed a disappointing result for the south London side who had come to the north Downs for a win.
The match was evenly poised in the opening quarter as both packs sized each other up. While OD’s dominated the line outs, the Ashford eight exerted eye popping pressure at scrum time, driving their opponents off the ball and making it difficult for the OD halfbacks to assert any control. By contrast, the Ashford half backs had time to jink and distribute the ball to ensure the home side held the gain line advantage. It was from a consecutive scrum and penalty that Ashford were able to camp deep into OD territory and eventually force a try from close range, having tucked the ball tightly up their proverbial jumpers from a rare lineout win.
Fighting fire with fire, the OD’s showed strength and technique in the rolling maul which, from a lineout, allowed marauding centre Lee McCarthy to run a great line into the heart of the Ashford defence. A good supporting ruck allowed back rowers Peter Jefferys and Rhys Bozier to show their skills with a neat blindside sortie which saw Bozier cross the line unopposed. The bruising forward battle quickly became the focus of the game, with players from both sides penalised and sin-binned for some borderline tackles and general overexuberance. A well worked Ashford score was swiftly answered by a virtuoso try from Malachi Connolly to keep the OD’s in touch and the sides turned around, horns locked and lungs bursting, 12-10 at half time in Ashford’s favour.
At the resumption, Ashford quickly reasserted control up front and some ineffective OD tackling allowed another Ashford try and conversion. At times the OD forwards looked tentative and were unable to deliver consistently good ball that would allow Ubee to unleash his backs, but there was no doubting their resilience in repelling the rugged Ashford forward charges, with James Sinclair and Bozier registering impressively high tackle counts. When Keppe led the counter charge to score his try it looked as though they had weathered the storm but the Old Boys are learning the hard way that chances have to be taken in this competitive league that will be decided by very fine. margins indeed.
As the team move into the critical pre-Christmas period, let’s hope lessons are being learnt about the graft and guile of ball winning and retention that will eventually allow this side to flourish and put pressure on opposition sides for longer periods of the game.