Visitors do not see the funny side!

Nick Alway reports

Visitors do not see the funny side!

Nick Alway reports

Despite this further avalanche of points at Duke’s Meadows - this time with a successful outcome - one had to have concerns about the leakiness of the CS ship. If one considers that with barely five minutes to go the score stood at 39-37 - and that that two point difference reflected the fact that Ross Yiend had had the alertness earlier in the game to charge down the Gravesend kicker’s invitingly close conversion attempt of a try under the posts – then this was hardly the most convincing of performances.

Very entertaining it had been again certainly. This was partly down to the see-sawing score line and partly because this was quite a comedy of errors but some of that entertainment value was also provided by the increasingly strident and desperate criticisms that the most vocal of Gravesend supporters was making of the officiating and which will hardly have endeared him to the gentleman concerned . That criticism is also reflected in Gravesend’s own match report - albeit expressed in language slightly more restrained than that used by the touch line heckler - an article that also a local paper with many editions throughout the South East, under the headline “ Gravesend undone by dubious decisions”! http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/sport/9986369.Gravesend_undone_by_some_dubious_decisions/

Honest comment – it used to be called fair comment - is a defence in defamation of course and as the leading tome, Gatley on Libel and Slander, recognises such comment can in fact be anything but objectively fair : “ A comment may be fair even if it is irrational, stupid or obstinate or expressed in pungent and offensive terms” and “ The crank , the enthusiast may say what he honestly thinks as much as the reasonable man or woman. “ So that’s just as well then !

And what the Gravesend report rather overlooks is that the decisions of the referee made in good faith had an equal impact on both sides. The RFU is not of course in the business of being the champion of free speech but rather discourages such strident criticisms of officialdom particularly from the touch line - seeing the greater evil as referee abuse and indeed rugby, that most physical of games, has always prided itself on its respect for its officials. https://www.rfu.com/TheGame/~/media/Files/2010/TheGame/CoreValues/Code_of_Rugby.ashx

You will want to know something of the rugby played as well learning about libel law and being reminded of one of rugby’s core values !

CS took the lead after barely 3 minutes courtesy of a line out steal by Chris Endersby who was driven over by the rest of the pack. James Houstoun’s conversion went wide but it was to be his only miss of the afternoon as he found his kicking boots, rather importantly in the overall scheme of things. Gravesend’s equalising score after 15 minutes would have seen them take the lead were it not for Yiend’s aforementioned alert charge-down. As it was a Houstoun penalty, followed by a Stuart Peel try - he was cleverly put through by Rhys Lapidus following a quickly taken tap penalty - converted by Houstoun saw the CS lead stretch to 15-5 with two minutes to go to half time.

Not for the first time this season by any means CS put themselves under pressure by spilling the kick-off and a further defensive gaff under the posts then gifted the visitors seven points so that the interval score was 15-12.

Another error following receipt of the second-half kick-off and a somewhat comical clearance effort resulted in a simple penalty for the visitors so within a minute either side of halftime, a ten point lead had been thrown away.

Next it was Gravesend’s turn for an aberration as some woeful tackling allowed full back Brendan Ward to score under the posts and with the conversion CS were now ahead 22-15. But the see-sawing continued . The Stags yet again made a hash of the fielding of the restart – where may you have read that before? – and Gravesend’s scrum half kicked for all the world apparently fairly harmlessly into space but Ward scampering across had a nightmare moment and the visitor’s nine showed good footballing skills to score the try, unconverted, 22-20.

Houstoun added a further penalty before Gravesend contrived to take the lead for the first time with a hack through, chase, touch down and conversion, 25-27 , a lead augmented by a penalty following arguably the most bizarre phase of play to that point and there had been several strong candidates : CS tried to move the ball when behind their own try line to outflank the industrious Gravesend vanguard who were having none of it : instead the Stags’ backs heaped pressure on themselves and the wild attempted clearance kick when it came ricocheted off a post and was promptly played by one of the many CS defenders still in front of the ball. One did not know whether to laugh or cry, 25 -30 !

Fortunately that was almost - but not quite - where the nonsense stopped. A period of sustained pressure on the visitors’ try line after 60 minutes saw three scrummage offences in quick succession , the completely justified award of a penalty try and the sin binning of their scrum half - who had been a considerable thorn in CS’s side until then - for seeking to kick the ball out of the scrum. With the conversion the Stags had their noses in front again, 32-30 and two minutes later there was daylight as Houstoun sped in for a try which he again converted for 39-30.

But there was still time for a little more of the unforgivable: with a man to the good a try was conceded when the visitors, who had done well to secure the attacking position, managed a drive, pick and go, to score and, at 39 -37 and ten minutes to go, the outcome was yet again in the balance and with the visitors back to full strength they now clearly had their spirits up. Five minutes later and with play fairly even and virtually every refereeing decision being met with howls of derision by Gravesend’s most prominent supporter, a bout of fisticuffs saw CS’s Richard McLaughlin sent to the bin and the visitor’s fly half, who had come charging in from a distance, shown a red. So the final act would be played with fourteen aside.

It was Gravesend who immediately cracked. Rather than kicking to touch CS moved the ball smartly from the penalty and there was space enough for Ross Yiend to go round the outside and score and insult was added to the visitor’s injury when he repeated the dose moments later. A somewhat theatrical, although not necessarily totally unmeritorious, claim by the visiting full back to have been impeded as he chased after an optimistic chip was rejected by the referee and CS accepted the gift horse. Houstoun again converted both of these late tries for a personal tally of 23 points.

It had been a day full of blunders by both sides and one which – until almost the final whistle – had been for CS supporters nail bitingly close. The line-out had again been a source of disappointment, the change of personnel at hooker having made no discernible difference . That said, for this supporter the work rate of the forwards in the loose – with Chris Endersby particularly prominent – and the bravura of some of the backs play at least had just about earned the Stags ’ their scrappy high scoring victory.

CS scorers:

Tries:

Endersby
Peel
Ward
Penalty
Houstoun
Yiend (2)

Cons

Houstoun (6)

Pens

Houstoun (2)