Kentish Express Ashford & District
Ashford get off the mark
Ashford secured their first victory in London 2 South East this season - at the sixth attempt.
They hit the ground running against fellow strugglers Crowborough and ran out 12-5 winners thanks to tries from Farai Myezwa and Callum Stuckey.
“We have been working towards this kind of result since the start of the season,” said director of rugby Chris Dengate.
“Our play, particularly in the first half, showed what is possible when our forwards drive hard and release quick ball for our backs to exploit.”
From the outset, Ashford’s forwards drove hard at the Crowborough defence, breaking tackles and offloading to good effect. And for the first time in a league match this season they took - and extended - the lead courtesy of two well-worked scores.
The first points came after seven minutes, when the forwards committed the visitors’ defence before moving the ball quickly to Myezwa, who outpaced the opposition to score. Charlie Colman’s conversion extended the lead to 7-0.
Five minutes later Ashford struck again, on this occasion
driving off a lineout and taking play into midfield. They sucked in the Crowborough defence before attacking the blindside, and a long pass to Stuckey set up a try in the corner.
The closest Crowborough came to scoring was a missed 35th-minute penalty, so Ashford reached the break in unfamiliar territory with a lead to defend.
The opening moments of the second half saw Crowborough upping their attacking efforts, twice driving deep into the Ashford 22, only to throw away penalties and the chance to put points on the board.
Crowborough threw everything at Ashford in the last 10 minutes and with three minutes left they touched down to move within seven points of the home team, thereby securing a losing bonus point.
However Ashford successfully closed out the game to claim their first win and four points.
The 2nds made it a weekend double with a 38-17 victory over Snowdown 1sts in Shepherd Neame Kent 3 Rural.
An injury in the warm-up left the team to start with 14 players, but Ashford maintained a high tempo game, moving the heavier
Snowdown pack around the pitch to reduce their physical advantage.
Grant Collins claimed a firsthalf hat-trick, while Ryan Hammond also went over for a 26-3 lead at half-time.
Ten minutes into the second half Collins was forced off with an injury, reducing Ashford to 13. It took the home side some time to take advantage of their numerical superiority, but a 55th minute try and conversion narrowed the scores to 26-10.
Any thoughts of a resurgence were, however, short lived as Luca Makhalfa created a scoring opportunity with a blindside break and registered his first try of the season. Ollie Gray added two points with the conversion.
Snowdown reduced the lead again with a second try, but a final flourish allowed Will Blyth to chip over the Snowdown defence for Ben Doiught to collect and score his first try of the season.
“This was a very impressive performance from the team,” said coach George Collins.
“Several of our younger players showed their capacity to rise to the challenge of senior rugby and are creating healthy competition for firstteam places.”
Both the 1sts and 2nds travel to Thanet Wanderers on Saturday.