Bromley RFC VS Deal & Betteshanger

BROMLEY WIN TO SECURE SECOND PLACE IN THE LEAGUE

On Saturday Bromley entertained Deal and Betteshangar who are coached by Danny Vaughan an ex player for Bromley’s first team. They have been on a fine run of form recently and ran league champions Alleynians pretty close last week. Again multiple changes in Bromley’s squad with Banfield, Brown, Haisell and Bird returning to the forwards, Godden coming out of the back row to scrum half, Rice returning but playing centre and Pope continuing on the right wing. On the bench were Carroll, Holland and Tommy Scott returning after several weeks out. There were still significant absentees notably Powell, Pillow, George Scott, Pullen and Ansell plus a few others. However this was still a strong and pretty experienced side and the healthy crowd, who had enjoyed an excellent Vice Presidents Lunch, settled back to enjoy the game and they did not have to wait long.

Johnny Griffiths kicked off but it was too long and drifted out of play. Scrum back and possession to the away side. However, Deal and Bett decided to gamble and went for the kick again to a certain amount of amazement on the touchline. So Johnny lofted the ball in the air again. It was not taken cleanly and young Oscar Gray pounced on the loose ball and with a weave here and a dummy there ran through a statuesque defence to score near the posts and with his third kick of the day Griffiths slotted the extras and the home side were 7-0 up in less than two minutes. This was a bit of a wake up call for Deal and for the next fifteen minutes or so they attacked from all corners of the pitch and Bromley struggled to get out of their twenty two never mind their half. But the home team are a resilient side and erected their brick wall and although stressed and stretched they did not concede. Their only concern was that after giving away a number of penalties and being warned try scorer Gray had to depart the scene for ten minutes reflection on fourteen minutes.

Bromley began to ease their way down the field and their scrummaging was beginning to take its toll. Godden, who had a wonderful game appearing to be everywhere, made a great break around the twenty five minute mark and the ball was transferred to Rice and he sped off right and with a two man overlap a try looked certain but he attempted to ghost through and was snaffled. Two minutes later a solid scrum from Bromley led to an almost identical scenario and this time Rice passed to Hawkins and he cantered in for the unconverted score. The home side now had the bit between their teeth and were causing Deal all sorts of problems. On thirty three minutes after Bromley had been awarded a couple of penalties leading to another powerful scrum the ball went through a couple of phases and vice captain Brown crashed over and Griffiths neatly converted it. Five minutes later after several phases of controlled play, Banfield got hold of the ball and simply smashed his way through three attempted tackles and jogged/fell over the try line. Great individual effort and his work was nearly done for the day. Converted, bonus point secured and 26-0 up at the break.

If Bromley thought the game was won they got a bit of a shock two minutes into the second half when their big number eight got the ball in space and rumbled through several lacklustre tackles and scored near the posts leading to a simple conversion. This led to about twenty minutes of pretty hard and attritional rugby with neither team dominant and the referee kicking up a storm with his whistle with both sides at fault mainly at the breakdown. On sixty six minutes finally a bit of quality with Bromley attacking up the right hand side of the pitch, the ball being transferred through several hands ending up with young second row Walder who pressed the accelerator and romped home from fifteen yards much to his delight and the crowds.

 31-7 up, shut up shop and see the game out. Deal had other ideas and orchestrated by their excellent fly half began to attack from all over the pitch and Bromley were back on defensive duties. However, the brick wall was a bit crumbly and two tries were scored and well deserved too. Bromley did not panic and saw out the rest of the game with no particular scares for a well deserved if hard earned win. Final score 31-21. This was a good game, firmly refereed and the outcome secured second place in the league for Bromley which is an outstanding achievement and is a credit to the players, coaches and the unsung heroes behind the scenes. Bromley also played a friendly away to Sidcup and sent a pretty mixed team of a couple of second teamers, a number of thirds and a few who have not had much game time this year. Unfortunately, the opposition was not quite such a mixed selection proving to be a group of young whippersnappers. An enjoyable game ensued and Bromley were undone by the pace and youthful enthusiasm of the opposition finally surrendering to a score of 38-10.

Next week, for their final league fixture, the ones are away at Crowborough where they are hopeful that the whole squad will be up for selection with Pullen being the only exception. It is a game they can look forward to and I am sure they will enjoy themselves enormously afterwards whatever the outcome. Any other games will be posted later.