Dover

Match report author Paul Hickson is Partner at Seniors' sponsor Menzies, to whom we are as ever hugely endebted.

You know you have travelled a long way when the opposition supporters are wearing berets!  

However, the fixture between the 2nd and 3rd positioned teams was always going to be worth the journey and indeed after last years extraordinary 0-0 draw it was going to be a closely fought encounter which it proved to be... well for the first 72 minutes at least.

I was indebted to Tom (Schofield) for the team line up, as Dover don't do programmes, and he informed me Cobham had a back row debutant, Rob Frost, not related to Dick, but a dead ringer from a distance for Dupuy, if he was foot taller that is.

Dover had the better of the territory and possession in the first ten minutes. Scrums were going against the head and line outs were being lost by both teams but it was Dover who achieved the first score when they intercepted a pass in the Cobham half. 7-0. Within 5 minutes however Tim Green had converted a penalty for offside and Cobham were on the scoreboard, well we would have been if Dover had a scoreboard! 7-3

The pitch at Dover is on something of a slope and for all the world looked like it was the widest pitch the regulations would allow, or it may be it was just that we didn't find touch as often as we should have and from a Dover counterattack and breakthrough it looked as if a kick ahead was touched down for a second Dover try, only for the Ref to rule it had gone over the dead ball line.

Shortly after this reprieve Cobham lost their prop Richard Nunn with an injury and he was replaced in the front row by the versatile Tristan Lee with Jamie Durward coming into the second row.

Dover were consistently playing close to offside all afternoon and as a consequence of a further infringement Tim Green was able to achieve a further penalty 7-6 but Dover's back line was always looking dangerous on the breakout. So much so that Captain Jack was deemed to have 'slowed down' one of their players and ignoring the immediate advantage to Dover the Ref decided instead to give them a 10 minute advantage by yellow carding Jack.

It is at these moments that teams have to pull together as Dover looked to benefit from their numerical advantage. However, instead of gaining any advantage, Dover found themselves penalised for 'back chat' to the ref and linesman (Josh) and Tim Green converted penalty number three for Cobham to take the lead 7-9.

Although just before half time Cobham were also penalised and at the break the score line was 10-9 that was felt to be a fair reflection of the first half - the match was turning out to be as close as everyone had expected.

You are greeted at the Clubhouse door at Dover by the strap line 'Hunt or be Hunted' to remind you that you are playing Dover Sharks. As the second half started with Cobham still down to 14 players Dover were hunting their second try and only stiff resistance from the Cobham pack kept them out. Having survived that assault Dover switched play to the other side of the widest pitch in the world and 'scored' a try in the corner, only for it to be disallowed for a forward pass. (We couldn't tell whether the Ref was having a good day or not but it looked like he was going to be told later by a very official looking gentleman on the sidelines with a clipboard and an ear piece).

Henry Mounsey came on for Chris Moreton and Tim Green came into the centre but still Cobham could not break through the Dover defence. With just 10 minutes to go Cobham got a difficult penalty opportunity and Tim Green's kick hit the upright.

Alas from that point onwards it was all Dover as they chased down on a kick to score a converted try under the posts 17-9 and in the last minute of play achieve a second interception to wrap the game up at 24-9.

That final score didn't reflect the game we watched and that's when it’s important to have a match report to put a result into context. However, this defeat will have hurt Cobham because they played extremely hard and came close to winning against a very good side.

Cobham return home next week to celebrate Lionel Frewin's last match as Chairman of the CSA by playing Beckenham and that's a game they will not want to lose.