Bromley RFC VS Dover RFC

BROMLEY REBUFF STRONG CHALLENGE FROM DOVER

On Saturday Bromley entertained Dover who they drew with earlier in the season so a difficult game was in prospect. As seems to be the norm now there were quite a number of changes to the Bromley XV with, for whatever reasons, Carroll, Milne, Haisell, Tom Powell, James Powell, Laws and Nicholas out and coming in were Mies, Harding, Gray, George Scott, Hawkins, Devane and Weekes (debut?). The first twenty minutes were a bit helter skelter with a fired up Dover side taking it to Bromley and they spent the first ten minutes or so penned in their half and principally defending. Five minutes in and the away side went through several phases of play and stretched the home side and they eventually cracked when a very good team try was scored out wide left. Ten minutes later they went further ahead when a penalty was awarded to them for a high tackle. 0-8 and Bromley had work to do. The response came in the twentieth minute when a surging break by George Hawkins put Bromley in the opposition twenty two where they were awarded a lineout. This was won and scrum half George Scott made a sniping break towards the posts and then produced a great deceptive inside pass to the onrushing winger Alex Griffiths to cruise in under the posts and with the conversion it was 7-8. A fierce battle for territory and possession ensued with Bromley foiled on several occasion as the Dover forwards proved adept at turning the ball over. On thirty three minutes Harry Taylor powered up the middle of the pitch and with quick recycling and hands Hawkins was released. He drew the cover to pass to Griffiths on the wing. He still had work to do and elected to kick and in the melee that followed Dover managed to get away with a goal line drop out.

However, six minutes later it was Bromley’s turn to steal the ball in midfield and it ended up in the hands of Rice and with a lovely sleight of hand he suckered a couple of defenders and there was The Hawk to take the final pass and he made scoring look easy as he dotted down wide right. Excellent conversion by Johnny Griffiths. Bromley were now at their free flowing best with Hawkins again breaking through leading to the award of a penalty. This was quickly transferred by the two Griffiths brothers and into the hands of Robbie Brown who forced his way over left of the posts leaving the half time score at 8-19. After a difficult start Bromley had made a fine recovery and produced several moments of outstanding rugby but now needed to push on as Dover were dogged and determined and presented a real physical challenge. 

Bromley emptied their bench with Taylor being unfortunate in picking up some sort of arm knock and he was replaced by Devane and the experienced Miles came into the front row. For the first twenty minutes of the second half, Bromley were like a runaway train going through moves at speed – some planned and some off the cuff. Dover were fighting fires all over the pitch but could not contain a rampant home side. On forty six minutes they stripped a ball from the away side about twenty metres out and with a quick pass young winger Weekes scooted over. Four minutes later they were again knocking on the door and in their desperation, a Dover player committed some sort of illegality and the dreaded yellow came out and they were down to fourteen. They paid an immediate price from the penalty awarded with the home team going through a couple of phases and Miles crashing over from seven centimetres and the extras added. 31-8. Two minutes later they were in again with young Bromley winger Rowe being the beneficiary of a flowing back move. Four minutes later they again trapped Dover in their twenty two. Turned them over and with swift passing, Alex Griffiths performed some sort of miraculous airborne dive to score in the corner much like a try scored by Scotland versus Ireland.

At this stage, you feared for Dover as Bromley were in full attack mode and they began to play for several minutes like a rugby equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters with some outrageous flicks and kicks and the likes of Godden and Tommy Scott breaking through and charging towards the try line but somehow these moves broke down and Dover by some miracle weathered the storm and came back into the game aided by a period of ten minutes from Bromley which was not very good if not bonkers. They just seemed to lose their shape and focus with the ball being kicked aimlessly downfield on a number of occasions when they had the opportunity to run and on the one occasion when they did try to run from their twenty two George Scott got flat packed by a great tackle and Hawkins came in to tidy up and with a carefully considered fly hack he completely missed the ball but Bromley managed to clean up the ball and clear the danger.

Once Bromley got these gremlins out of their system they went about running the clock down the clock and denying Dover any opportunities. However, they had one final trick up their sleeves when in the final play George Scott made a nice break and with the support of George Rice, they created a bit of space for George Hawkings to run into. However, he was near the halfway line with several defenders loitering in his path. With a shimmy and a gallon,p he got past a couple but then got scragged, possibly high, and he hit the ground. Move over. Not quite as he bounced up like a rubber ball, not held, and set off again. This time he was away and there was no stopping him this time as he scored an outstanding try to seal a very good display from an excellent home side scoring eight tries and three conversions.

For about sixty minutes of this game, Bromley were very good indeed, ten minutes on high alert defensively and ten minutes off piste but overall very good. There were lots of terrific individual performances with Player of the Match going to Aydan Godden who was everywhere and his throwing in at the lineout was on the money. Ah, the lineout what has happened there? My own choice would be George Hawkins with his final try influencing me. For Dover, I would pick out their hooker who did his basic jobs very well and was a constant menace in loose play. He also seemed to be a self motivator by ceaselessly chattering away to himself. Either that or his teammates were ignoring him.

Over on pitch number two the seconds were hosting Kings College Hospital in a Kent Four match. This proved to be an epic encounter with the lead changing hands on several occasions. Bromley prevailed at the death to win 25-24. Their Player of the Match was Dan O’Rourke who won for the second week running which is probably a club record of some sort. Great credit to KCH for being part of such a terrific encounter. Next week the firsts are at home to Cranbrook and the seconds and thirds have tough looking fixtures away at Canterbury and Swanley respectively. There is also a President’s Lunch that day which I suspect will be a sell out.