Lordswood II – 15

St Leonards CP – 65

(HT 10-30)

Injuries and unavailability meant that Ports travelled to the Medway towns with only ten players, bolstered by Rye stalwart Cezza, and Welsh centre Matt Mayatt.

Lordswood loaned a player too, giving Ports 13 to face a full Lordswood squad.

The strange quality of the game was enhanced by the fact that no conversions were taken due to the position of the pitch.

Despite being short-handed Ports started brightly. Kim Wan made a number of crunching tackles, and Mike Hutchins ripped the ball in the tackle on a number of occasions.

Lordswood lost the ball and Hutchins combined well with Mayatt and the centre ran home the first. Hutchins shortly added a second from short range.

A mix up allowed Lordswood to add a second, before Will Steele received the ball after a well worked move. He danced home from 30 metres out.

Wan almost added another after a Steele offload before Cezza waltzed through the defence to dot down. The Rye forward broke through again and fed Josh Storey on a great support line for the powerful second row to add his first.

When Lordswood did have the ball Wan and Dale Whittington were at the breakdown but they did add another after an error.

Whittington also combined well with Myatt to add another try to end the half.

The second half started similarly, Hutchins added his second, he probed at the defence before finding a gap and running home. Steele added his second and hat-trick running support he dived over for both in the corners.

Lordswood worked well to add a third, but the game became more ragged.

Hutchins again made a probing run and fed Whittington to add his second. Hutchins, Mayatt and Cezza were all lively, the latter adding his second with a bullocking run.

Mayatt then fed Greg Montier, the powerful forward playing out of position shrugged off tackles to dot down his first.

With Lordswood visibly tired Hutchins found another gap and made a scuttling run to end the game.

Team Manager Gavin Thomas made a realistic appraisal of the match saying: “There was a bit of a gulf, but we did what we needed to do effectively and efficiently. We took opportunities well and worked hard throughout”.

A number of players stood out, Hutchins pulled the strings in the backs, Steele took his hat-trick well but E-Heat man of the match was Kim Wan. The veteran second row was destructive at the ruck and tackle and carried well throughout.