Gravesend 22 - Old Colfeians 29

Gravesend bowed out of the players-offs despite a superb second half fightback against very good opposition at the weekend.   

With the winner due to make the long trip down to Winchester in the next round it was Colfes who showed much more desire in the first half and despite an early score from Gravesend’s Josh Barnes the rest of the half belonged to Colfes. 

Gravesend were masters of their own downfall with too many balls being dropped and tackles missed against a big powerful side. So when Half Time was reached the Gs were staring down the barrel of a gun 22-3 behind. 

Whether it was what was said at half time or the weather taking its toll on the much bigger Colfes towards but Gravesend set about their business in the second half in much more determined fashion. 

Josh Barnes reduced the deficit following a fine move and when Andrew Cooke crossed the line to take the score to 15-22 following the conversion the comeback was on.  This felt short lived when more or less straightaway Gravesend failed to clear their line and fell off tackles to allow Colfes to stretch the lead to 14. 

Gravesend were straight back on the attack and when Josh Barnes crossed the line with 5 minutes remaining it looked like Gravesend could drag themselves back into the game.  In fact they could have when Colfes, who had already one player in the bin, cynically dropped a rolling maul as Gs edged closer.  Strangely the referee deemed it no more than a penalty from which Gravesend failed to capitalise and the knocked on when trying to get the ball out wide. 

Colfes saw out the last 2 minutes without incident and claimed their 3rd away trip in the play-offs.   For Gravesend despite the initial disappointment this was time to reflect on a fantastic season culminating in a fine run in seeing them win eight games in a row and finish 3rd in the league.