5 October 2008
Beccehamians 22 - Medway Cougars 24
Tries: French, Shears, Stewart, Fitzpatrick
Cons: Gowdy 2
For the second week running the Cougars were forced to dig deep against strong opposition and come from behind to maintain their impressive unbeaten run, this time against current under 15 Kent County Champions, Beccehamians. Both teams took to the field with what were very much experimental sides, but it was Medway who was to show that they had strength in depth when it mattered most in this enthralling fixture.
The game kicked off in miserable conditions with heavy rain and gusting winds prevalent. However, the Cougars settled the quicker and dominated possession and territory during the opening twenty minutes. There were strong performances amongst both forwards and backs alike with Ian Patterson, Alex Morgan and Lewis Marriott all featuring heavily in a side determined to stick to its principle of keeping the ball alive and moving. However, for all their efforts Medway was unable to turn possession into points and a breakaway move by Beccehamians saw good hands out to the wing and the first try of the day which went unconverted.
Both sides rang the changes over the next twenty minutes fielding some of the stronger boys available to their respective squads. Although the Cougars continued to control long passages of play, Beccehamians always looked dangerous when they moved the ball out wide and it was in this fashion that they were to increase their lead through two further tries and a conversion. A further interception try as Medway tried to move the ball out wide themselves meant that the Cougars entered the final twenty minutes with no apparent hope at 22 points down. However, as we have seen before these Cougars are made of stern stuff and a tactical change by head coach Mark Marriott, well executed by the boys was to lead to a truly remarkable turn-around.
The Cougars began to continually re-cycle wave after wave of possession driving deep into Beccehamians territory. Held up short of the line, Dominic French peeled off the blind side of a rolling maul to go over the line for the first Medway score of the day. Shortly afterwards, great work by the forwards once more drove holes through the Beccehamians defence and a great off load by Liam Fitzpatrick put Adam Shears in the corner for his first try of the season. Medway continued to push forward and they were to get further reward as more great forward work by Fitzpatrick and Morgan put Fergus Stewart away on the halfway line and there was no catching him as he sped away like a winger to dive in under the posts for a try converted by Luke Gowdy.
The Cougars were inspired with converted forward Jack Johnson having an excellent game amongst the backs and with Charlie Wardzynski, Dan Stone and Gowdy all probing away, the game was now being played out deep in Beccehamians territory. A charge down short of their in goal area caused panic amongst the home defence and Liam Fitzpatrick dived onto the ball to score the Cougars fourth try of the game to tie the match. It was left to Gowdy to secure what seemed an unlikely victory with his second conversion of the game, this one from way out on the wing, for a final score of Beccehamians 22 Medway 24.
