Before the season even kicked off, many felt that here were to be no easy fixtures in this London SE Counties Kent 1 Division, and recent Crowborough fixtures have more than proved that assumption to be true. This encounter was to reinforce that view.
The game kicked off, on arguably the best pitch in the league, which showed no sign of the previous eight hours of biblical rain, but a game that was sadly to be played in front of a disappointing crowd; dwarfed by the number players on the pitch!
Rugby is a simple game, but is too often complicated by unnecessary over thinking, and defined by how the opposition wants you to play. From the kick off the home side appeared to play it tight through their forwards, denying any useful ball to ‘Boro.
The first ‘Boro ball that the forwards managed to snaffle, was inevitably slow, and with the opposition defence bordering on the offside line, the ball was hoisted into the air handing possession back to the home side to set up an attack through their well organised back three!
Crowborough’s strength is in quick ball, exploited by fast running backs, but for the first ten minutes the backs were limited to gesticulating their availability out wide, but to no avail.
With ten minutes gone, ‘Boro managed to put together several phases of support play, with forwards and backs interplaying, and depriving the home side of possession. Deep into the Gills 22, Josh Jarvis latched onto the final pass to cross over for the first score , which Jared Hermann converted 0-7.
This could have been the opportunity for ‘Boro to reset, but from the restart the default play appeared to be to revert to the kick and eschew the strengths outside. With possession handed back to Gills, they tested the ‘Boro defence, which proved to be up to the task. However as the ball was moved wide, so progress towards the ‘Boro red zone continued. Strangely, with progress seemingly only a matter of time, the obvious pass was ignored in favour of the chip kick, that was well fielded by Harry Marchesi.
Agonisingly, with the slippery ball the clearance was delayed, with the following up centre managing to charge down the kick and win the race, to touch down between the sticks. 7-7.
‘Boro were more than capable of controlling the narrative, and to put together a fifteen man “ total rugby” performance, but it was unclear where the vision was, and how the collective would combine to achieve it.
Moving into the Gills 22, the ‘Boro pack drove the defence backwards, and with the Gills #2 pulling the maul down, the official awarded a penalty try and sent the miscreant to the bin for ten minutes.7-14 HT
Clearly the Crowborough coaching staff had had words at half time, to maximise the various strengths that the initial team selection had put together.
But before they could put those words of wisdom into practice, the Gills were level and ‘Boro were preparing to restart after they conceded a strange penalty try against the flow of play.14-14
In the first half the backs had lined up too flat, in an attempt to force the pace, but by lying deeper it would allow the attack to hit the pass at pace, and put the home side defence under pressure, and so it proved.
With quick ball Ed Croft released Jared Hermann who slung out the initial pass on his own 10 metre line, with Sean Bate and Josh Jarvis injecting pace. As Jarvis straightened the line, Harry Marchesi slid into the line and drawing the final defender offloaded to Will Pitman to outpace the cover and score out wide for an unconverted try. 14-19
This should have been the point at which ‘Boro reprised their training ground moves, and put daylight between the teams, but the Gills kept the score to just 4 points when ‘Boro transgressed in front of the posts and Joe Chapman was shown yellow.. 17-19
Crowborough then let five points go begging when in a déjà vu moment Will Pitman was about to dot down in the corner, when he unnecessarily took a step inside, slipped, and fell inches short where the cover secured the ball and the opportunity to stretch the lead to 9 points was lost.
However the backs then realised how simple the game really is, and once more exploited the same route, this time with Will Pitman doing the right thing, crossing the line to score the try, before making it easier for Jared Herman to convert. 17-26
Gillingham had still not given up and threw everything at 14 men ‘Boro. From an attack in the ‘Boro 22 ‘Boro were to compound the felony when they were reduced to 13 men when Callum Main, the smallest man on the pitch , was sent to the bin for a high tackle! 20-26
For the final 5 minutes ‘Boro’s 13 men held out against a determined Gills attack, but thankfully for the visitors time ran out and ‘Boro came away with a bonus point win, remaining in seventh position.
With Old Elthamians next up at Steel Cross, it will be essential that ‘Boro’s tallented individuals, play to their even more collective strengths.
The 2nd XV had a Great Result down at Hayward Heath yesterday, to come away with a 45 – 29 win.