Edenbridge v St Francis, Friendly                                                                                                        
 
In terrible weather conditions, Edenbridge were always going to be under pressure from a set of big forwards. Sure enough, the ‘Bridge found their preferred running game to be almost impossible in the mud, wind and rain of this weekend. All too often Edenbridge found themselves out-muscled in the scrums and conceding territory to St Francis’ well drilled maul.

Things could have been a lot worse for Edenbridge though. The score line reflects the closeness of this as a contest; in the opening exchanges the Black and Golds were on top. Gradually though the St Francis forwards ground their way forward. Excellent tight defence though saved many tries and some superb counter mauling saw the visitors become increasingly frustrated. Eventually though the pressure began to tell and Edenbridge ran out of fringe defenders and the first try was scored. This was closely followed by a second scored in exactly the same way, this time they added the extras; 0-12.


Edenbridge’s unfamiliar backline looked very dangerous when given the ball but in the driving rain control was always going to be difficult. Despite this though, Edenbridge first try was scored via a lovely passing play down the line interspersed with forwards; a neat one-two between Lilley and Perry led to a well worked overlap to allow Batchelor to score. Weaver added the extras; 7-12.

Any chance of a stylish game was gone and this was going to descend into battle of attrition. Fortunately, Edenbridge began to firm up their scrum and began to see some more ball. For most of the second half the game was in deadlock. St Francis did manage to wrestle their way over from close range again however but sliced the kick.

Edenbridge looked determined not to give in and fought back hard. There were some promising looking breaks from Allwood making his return to the 1st XV, Purvis, and Driscoll. Sure enough, one of these breaks led to a try with Weaver following up a run and finishing the last 25 yards on his own. With 4 minutes to go and with Edenbridge in the ascendancy the kick was swiftly taken and missed.

St Francis were too wily to rush anything from that moment on, running the clock down with a very long winded restart and then kicking every ball a long way into touch. Time ran out for Edenbridge who finished strongly and determined.

An solid performance from an Edenbridge side missing many regular players and with many playing out of position. The forwards did well to gain parity with their much larger opponents and the very young backs did some excellent work in atrocious conditions. Very much a performance (if not a result) to take heart from and to build upon for next week’s crucial game against TJs in the league.
 
Edenbridge: 
 
Scorers:
Tries: Batchelor, Weaver
Cons: Weaver
Pens:
 
Team:
15. Sedgwick, S; 14. Perry, S; 13. Driscoll, T; 12. Clarke, R; 11. Allwood, D; 10. Weaver, B; 9.Purivs, A; 1. Stevens, B; 2. Lilley, C; 3. Lucas, P (rep. Lacey, P); 4. Mussi, J; 5. Barnes, T; 6. Mitchell, D (rep. MacInnes, A); 7. Batchelor, S; 8. Fenner, M (capt.)