Cobham 30 Thanet 26

1sts Match Report from Paul Hickson

Fresh from defeating Wimbledon,  Cobham had to adopt their alternative red ( Man U) strip for their match against Thanet Wanderers, who play in blue.
 
However, that wasn't the only surprise before the match started as the Cobham subs bench had a particular front row feel about it with with Andy Alexander, Colin Cowan and  Aeren Young appearing. Tom Schofield tried to provide assurance that he had a cunning plan if any of the pretty boys were injured but in truth you just hoped it wouldn't come to that.
 
Thanet Wanderers had won 8 out of their last 12 matches and having defeated Maidstone 66-7 last week, (thereby scoring the highest number of points in a league match to date), this was going to be a keenly fought fixture.
 
Conditions at the Memorial ground were ideal and you know its Spring and getting warmer as Dan wasn't wearing his long sleeve vest.
 
Both teams tested each other in the first ten minutes with forays into each half and Matt Johnson was turning up in the back line, a la Joe Worsley. Thanet were holding Cobham back so it took a cleanly taken Tim Green penalty for a Thanet offside that opened the scoring. 3-0
 
Cobham looked to be in control but a dropped pass allowed Thanet's 'stand in stand off' to dribble the ball to the Cobham line for a converted touch down. 3-7.
 
Buoyed by that success Thanet's young team  maintained the pressure and it was further 15 minutes before Cobham got back into the Thanet half and benefited from a further offside infringement, Tim doing the honours to make it 6-7.
 
Spencer Franks had received the call once again to provide scrum half duties and showed why with some quick thinking from the back of a scrum to put Tim Green over for a 30 yard try under the post (Tim that's how far you said I should say,wasn't it?) maintaining his 100% record the score was Green 13- Thanet 7.
 
Chris Moreton was enjoying a storming afternoon and soon after he was held up just short of the line but he had made enough ground for Lee Raikes to maintain the remarkably high prop try count this year under the posts. 20-7.
 
Such was the momentum that Cobham were building the word on the touchline was 'one more score before half time and its all over' ( Balkwill). There was a score before half time but, unfortunately, it wasn't to be Cobham.
 
All afternoon Cobham's final passes seemed to let them down and from what was looking to be a wonderful backline move the ball went down, only for it to be picked up by the Thanet second row (!) who passed to the Thanet Hooker (!!) who, with complete disregard for the number on his back and why he had been put on the coach in the first place, then proceeded to outpace Cobham's finest to score under the post.
 
That made the half time score 20-14.
 
On the ascendancy Thanet started the second half as they had finished the first and maintained the pressure on the Cobham line.It took a relieving kick from Piers Gregory to get Cobham back into the opposition half.
 
Thanet's moment of glory came against Doncaster at Twickenham in 1996/7 when they won the first ever Intermediate Cup and they earnt the name ' The Comeback Kings'. So it was then,as it was now and with a quick tap penalty ( although no-one was sure the tap actually occurred) and a score under the posts Thanet  had taken the score from 20-7 to 20-21.
 
A further Tim Green penalty at least put Cobham back in front 23-21 but it was too tight to call how this match would end.
 
The referee was going to have to use his contextual judgement* with this score line but it wasn't stopping Thanet  breaching the offside line and it took a well executed line out drive from the pack to provide Cobham with what would have been Lee's second try of the match, but for the referee awarding a penalty try 30-21.
 
The final 15 minutes was a replay of the Wimbledon match with Thanet throwing everything at Cobham and eventually they got the a justly rewarded final score for the pressure. 30-26.
 
This was hugely entertaining rugby for the spectators even if it didn't quite go according to plan. Cobham retain third place and crept slightly closer to Dover, who lost but Sidcup and Dover still have 2 games in hand even if one of those is against each other
 
 
*Courtesy of Suzanne Whealing's referee exam paper.