Last Gasp Win for the Saints

Dartfordians Saints (4th XV) Home to Gravesend 4’s (and friends) – Saturday 22nd January 2022
Team: Tim Stagg, Ian McKenzie, Barry Dennis, Tony Mead, Danny Taylor, Clint Walsh, Joe Coughlin, Josh Bowen, Lee Oliver, Alex Hadler, Ryan Chandler, Ed Spencer, Mike Pastor, Paul Chandler, Mike Fiander, Dan Lewis, Bill Sargent
Score: Dartfordians Saints – 43 vs Gravesend 4’s – 40
Scorers: Smiler x 2, Ed Spencer, Bill Sargent, Alex Hadler, Scotchy, Mead
Conversions: Mead x 5
Darts 4th team at home to Gravesend 4’s (and friends) a last-minute replacement due to Shooterhillians being unable to field a side.
Social rugby is in a tough place at the moment with all clubs finding it a challenge to secure regular players and regular fixtures at a social rugby level. Dartfordians are very fortunate that we have a large playing squad to work with, despite this, it is a struggle to get 4 sides out on a regular basis. When we do manage to get enough players together to field a 4th team, it is then difficult to find suitable local opposition, so as to avoid a stitch up against a side that is too strong and to avoid long commutes to far away sides. With this in mind, thank you to Gravesend for stepping in to play at short notice. This meant 30 odd guys got to take part in a very competitive and entertaining game of rugby.
Another thank you to Dan Phillips, who through hard work and tenacity, managed to get 4 sides out on Saturday, the whole club (and most of the local clubs) owe Danny a debt of gratitude for the work he is putting in to get sides out and to find player suitable games. Our club is very lucky to have the Phillips family involved, they are responsible for a huge amount of our clubs success. Well done and thank you Dan!
On to the game! Darts end up with 17 players, Gravesend arrived with 13 players (as they had previously advised) and we agreed to lend players to get an even numbered game on.
Playing at the War Memorial Ground and being as it was Armistice Day, two minutes silence was held as a mark of respect and remembrance. As encouraged by Sargy both teams mixed together to show their respects, which was a nice touch.
A few points worthy of mention…
Gravesends flyhalfs restarts where exceptional all afternoon, the ball often coming down with snow on it, with the kicks enabling the G’s defence to either compete for the ball or put the catcher under huge pressure. This also resulted in Staggy pooping his pants / bottling it on most restarts.
Ed Spencer, with his flamboyant pink scrum cap, made some brilliant runs. Looking like an overweight swan vesta and running like one too. Ed did manage to sneak over for an excellent try. However, during one of his jaunty runs, whilst using his footwork and guile, he managed to throw an outrageous dummy, which seemed to confuse him greatly. Resulting in him forgetting how to run, meaning he fell to the floor 20m before the try line . Ed also managed to absolutely butcher a 5 man overlap (quite a feat when we were playing 13 aside at the time)
The Gravesend team started keenly with their very useful fullback hitting some good lines and punishing Darts for any loose kicking.
Fortunately for Graveo, the Phillip Schofield lookalike was not his usual amazing self with kicks out of hand. Meaning from at least 5 penalties, Darts kicked to the rapid fullball rather than finding touch. Resulting in a torrid afternoon for the Darts back three!
The Darts lads that volunteered to go and play for Gravesend showed proper rugby values and are a credit to our club. Macca, Mike Fiander, Danny Lewis – thank you
Clint and Paul Chandler played well in the front row, securing the set piece and trucking it up all day. Clinton also managed to only mildly annoy the ref, which was a marked improvement from the weekend before!!
Mike Pastor, now a Saints stalwart, had his usual solid game and managing to ensure his spray tan stayed nice and even.
Joe Coughlin, playing out of position at centre, made it through a full game, with some storming runs. Although he may need to join a gym and work on some arm strength as he got the ball stripped off him on a couple of occasions, resulting in some people rudely nicknaming him spaghetti noodle arms.
Smiler made a welcomed return to rugby after a long lay off with illness. It was fantastic to have him back and for him to play with his old man Paul (aka the love child of Boris Johnson and Thor God of Thunder!). Smiler was easily the best player on the pitch and deservedly won MotM. He scored two tries, the second of which was the match winner, on the last play of the game. Welcome back Smiler.
Another returning from an extended break from the game was Alex Hadler, who has been hitting the gym hard and is now clean living. Unfortunately, he has not been doing much cardio in the gym, meaning he had done his beans less than 8 minutes into the game (after scoring a rather excellent try).
Lee Oliver managed to pick up yet another head knock, some say he is clumsy, some say he has a face that people like to hit! What seemed to upset him the most about this incident was that there were 30 possible culprits (and we where only playing 14 aside at the time! I noted the ref looked a bit guilty!)
Bill Sargant also managed to crash over to finish off an excellent try in the first half (possible try of the season contender!). He probably wont remember the try though as he managed to get himself knocked out following a very brave tackle. Luckily, he has a hard head. A big thanks to the Gravesend Skipper, an ambulance worker, who returned to the pitch following his own head knock to help look after Bill.
Scotchy had another storming game at 9, scoring a lovely try and enjoying himself by berating the forwards and backs all game, like an angry little scotch egg.
Josh Bowan, now sporting a rather dodgy moustache (very dark web looking) played well in the midfield, despite putting in an early contender for ‘biggest forward pass of the season’.
The touchline was littered with 4th team rejects, whom instead of playing, came down to watch! (not so fat peri weepu and injured Ben)
The game was nip and tuck all the way, with the lead changing hands multiple times. The constantly changing score had the ref looking like he was doing the maths bit on count down every time I asked him for a score update. Gravesend played some good rugby, with a couple of excellent players in their side. It was a hard game played in the right spirt and competitive to the last. More importantly it was great to see how social rugby should be played, by two proper rugby clubs working together to get a game, with fair numbers and the right attitude. Both teams hung around for some food, beers and awards at the end. Lovely to see the Darts club house packed with a great atmosphere, with three teams playing at home and a prematch lunch crowd.
MoTM award – Smiler
Dick of the Day – Tony Toblerone boot Mead