A tough encounter shows the difference between top and bottom.

A particularly chilly day saw this correspondent ease himself out of his sick bed to attend another club dinner, this time at Cranbrook RFC; current head honchos in Kent 1. I can’t work out why all these dinners seem to be on when playing the bottom club in the league; any ideas? Still my compliments to the chef; a fantastic meat pie; followed by Malibu cheesecake and cheeses, soon had me feeling much better. I thank Cranbrook for their hospitality.

Bexley got off to a good start, exerting some good early pressure. However a lovely converted individual try from the gassy number 11 resulted in first blood to Cranes. A Jack Mills penalty resulted in the score being pegged back to 7-3. However, quick tapped penalties by Cranbrook kept Bexley under pressure, resulting in classy looking trys by the ‘brook centre and a further one from the wing.

A further try from the classy Cranbrook backs, as the centre stumbled over the line with the grace of a drunk Bernard Breslaw, ensured that they had earned a scoring bonus point by half time. This was really to be the story of the game; pacey Cranbrook backs punishing any Bexley error with ruthless efficiency, with their pack providing them quick ball from quick taps and efficient rucking. A final score of 57-3 being testament to this.

This led to Bexley’s very own Will Greenwood (Karl Ansell) loudly bemoaning the fact “the only weapon they’ve got is pace”. Thank heavens Kevin and Jerry were close enough to hear him so they can add this knowledge to the coaching repertoire; whod’ve thunk that you can win matches with pace eh?

Bexley’s tackling was uncharacteristically lackluster for the parts of the game, which did not help the cause. And I think that they felt they were not given a decent go by the referee, having to play nearly half the game with a man short for yellow card reasons. And they may have had a point here:

Cranbrook took out a Bexley jumper in the air at the line out. A yellow card seemed in the offing. But no! Obviously Harry King’s slowing the down the ball, in the first ten minutes, in the Cranbrook half, was merited a greater sin than dangerous play, as only he was carded. A yellow card for the line out offence (whilst perhaps not fully warranted) should have been given, if only for consistencies sake.

Some stout defending saw another Cranbrook attack repulsed. Sam Heard playing on the wing, obviously not being able to forget that he is at heart a scrum half, and therefore born to wind up opposition pack members. He was, shall we say, a little tardy at releasing a lock from the ruck so he could support his team mates. Of course, the world and his wife could see what was going to happen. Which self respecting second row would do otherwise? The punch came in; starting in a mass brawl between Bexley and Cranbrook players. Now personally I can’t blame anyone for punching Sam, but the consequences must be met. Obviously then, Sean Steel was yellow carded for a deliberate knock on!

Don’t be totally fooled by the score though. Some real purposeful attacking rugby from Bexley in the last quarter ensured that Cranbrook had to work really hard to ensure that the whitewash wasn’t crossed. Like our home match with Cranbrook, with ball in hand there is very little to tell the top of the table apart from the bottom of the table. The real difference was how the teams played when they didn’t have the ball, Cranbrook proving as adept without the ball as with it. But if Bexley could play like the first 10 and the last 20 minutes, for at least double that amount in every game, relegation can be staved off.

Now, off to lose to some weight before the next dinner invite.