Combe finish the season with silverware

Combe proved much too powerful for Thanet on a cold afternoon at Footscray, this year's venue for the Kent RFU finals. In every aspect of the game the Goddington Dene side outgunned the opposition. Combe's scrum was more than solid on its own ball and shoved
Thanet back unmercifully on their put in. With copious amounts of good ball the backs went through their paces with speed and precision pinning Thanet in their own half for the majority of the match. Thanet weren't helped in their preparations, arriving only ten minutes before the scheduled kick off due to an unplanned tour of Sidcup and New Eltham.

Combe ran out easy winners scoring 11 tries in all and the match was effectively over at half time with the score 41-0. Seven tries were scored with three conversions by stand off Owen Church-Mills. Try scorers in the first half were Eames, Harte (2), Kenward, Jackson and Hackett (2). While not on the score sheet centres Saffrey and Pursell created heaps of space with direct running and astute passing.

The second half was slightly more subdued affair, partly caused by Combe going down to fourteen men when the assistant referee intervened having seen some infraction on the ground. Combe regrouped and scored further tries from captain Jamie Taylor, Harry Taylor, Delderfield and Dowding. Church-Mills grabbed another couple of conversions to bring his tally to five for the match. Whereas the centres had shone in the 1st half without scoring, the front row took a bow in the 2nd securing 4 scrum penalties in a 5 minute period with a yellow
card for Thanet at the end of it.

So some gloss at the end of the season with the younger Combe players showing great promise for the coming promotion battle. Back at the clubhouse the victorious Combe players were helped in their celebrations by a visiting Japanese team underlining how wide the Rugby family is these days.

Westcombe Park: 1. Jamie Taylor (capt) 2. Freddie Heaton 3. Dave Vallely 4. Dylan Eames 5. Luke Delderfield 6. Harry Taylor 7. Ryan Hackett 8. Thibaud Calohard 9. Joe Birch 10. Owen Church-Mills 11. Lachlan Jackson 12. Scott Pursell 13. Bradley Saffery 14. Lewis Harte 15. James Kenward

Replacements: 16. James Snape 17. Will Hall 18. Mike Dowding 19. James Potter

Match Report

John Vallely and Billy Bignell