Blues ease to victory but Graves demands more

Whitstable swept to a second successive win in Shepherd Neame Kent 2 on Saturday but coach Mal Graves believes his team can still get better.

The Blues were in dominant form against the division’s bottom club, but Graves felt they left just as many points out on the field.

He explained: “The main positives were an away win, and another bonus point but really we’ve got to make sure our handling is sharper.

“We should have had double what we got and against the better teams we won’t be so lucky. There is definitely room for improvement.”

Whitstable were without several regu- lars meaning a number of players playing out of position including hooker Ben Cliff whose seasonal debut came in the unfamiliar guise of winger.

Graves himself started at hooker before moving to No.8 while there was a debut, at No.6, for youngster Jack Barrow, who caught and carried well.

Centre Josh Booty and winger Dan Till both grabbed two tries, with No.8 Rob Hudson and full-back James Garland also going over. Andy Huey kicked a penalty and a conversion to complete the scoring as Whitstable moved up one place to fifth.

Graves added: “A lot of us were out of position but we managed to dominate them in every facet. We never looked like we were going to lose, we just need to be more clinical.”

Till hurt his knee towards the end of the game and could now face three weeks out, while fellow winger Will Reid suffered concussion which will rule him out for a fortnight.

Fly-half Marck Olive has been struggling with a groin problem and could miss Saturday’s home game with Shooters Hill (kick-off 3pm). A lacklustre Faversham side, beset by poor organisation and illdiscipline, were edged out 31-29 at Shooters Hill in Kent 2 on Saturday. The visitors were seeking to inflict a fourth straight defeat on Hill but found themselves trailing after two quick tries against them. The opening quarter saw only the hosts playing with real intent, poaching at the breakdown and disrupting any rhythm the Castaways mustered. Faversham were constantly on the back foot and were hampered by sloppy passing and poor handling and Hill seized on one loose pass to cross for their first try. A second followed swiftly after as the home team brushed off poor tackling to cross with ease. A third try within 20 minutes threatened to sink the Castaways, however a breakaway try from Billy Egleton and the defensive efforts of Kyle Fiddler kept Hill within range. With Faversham’s normally safe lineout and scrum misfiring, the visitors opted to play the ball out wide. Great passing and support play from the back three opened up space on the left and a deft kick bounced into the hands of winger Bertie SandersChampney to race through and score under the posts. After the break the Faversham defence appeared much more organised, completing tackles and forcing the opposition into mistakes and back into their own 22. A Hill clearance found its way directly to Sanders-champney who immediately counter-attacked. Through change of pace, clever offloads and creative support runners, the ball moved from left to right wing and before the final offload found Egleton to cross for Faversham’s best try of the season so far. Now within touching distance of Shooters’ score, the visitors finally began playing with confidence and comfort but a moment of carelessness allowed the opposition to rip the ball from a maul unopposed and run clear to score. Needing to score twice to win, Faversham quickly replied. A series of penalties put them in a favourable position and a clean line-out set up a rolling maul which trundled over the line for Jack Meadows to score. With five minutes remaining, momentum on their side and just a single score needed, Faversham seemed hopeful of completing an impressive comeback. Castaways were pinned into their own half, with disruptive work at the line-out and break-down repeatedly penalised by the referee, leaving them agonisingly short at the final whistle. Faversham: C.garnham, T.cox, E.stott, C.harmsworth, M.suter, J.meadows, K.fiddler, L.garnham, J.williams, B.egleton, B.sanders-champney, P.bulteel, D.hodges, J.cheeseman, T.woolf, P.ehman, C.hunt.