Gravesend 31 - Old Reigatians 19

Gravesend produced a mirror image of last week with a fine first half performance against bottom club Old Reigatians on Saturday.  A result which guarantees them a play-off spot which now looks likely to be against next weeks opponents Horsham. 

After a tight 10 minutes or so Gravesend produced a flowing move which saw them shift the ball quickly from one side of the pitch to the other and Josh Barnes was on hand to scamper over. 

The forward were in dominant and the scrum was on top so was no surprise when Bradley Money was on hand to tap down with the visitors being marched back over the line.    Next on hand was Zac Filmer adding to this seasons tally as he received a late pass from fly half George Bruce and walked through under the posts.

With the score at 17-0 and all one way traffic.  Gravesend were guilty of infringing when it looked easier to score.  Old Reigatians firstly cleared their lines before a darting run from their winger reduced the deficit to 17-5.

This seemingly was the shot in the arm the home side needed with Man of the Match George Bruce scoring next after producing a fine dummy which wrong footed the home defence and allowed him to score under the posts.  With Josh Barnes scoring Half Time was 24-5 and the bonus point in the bag. 

The second half saw Gravesend start bright enough with the home side guilty of wasting a guilt edged chance after Josh McKenzie broke though the lines  only to see the final pass adjudged as forward.  In a mirror image Les Falefatu who carried well all afternoon smashed through the defence and passed to Rocky Sims to out run the defence and scored under the posts. 

While the remainder of the half was scrappy affair.  Gravesend were never allowed by the referee to exert the dominance that their forward pack deserved. That and numerous dropped balls prevented any fluidity.  Indeed Old Reigatians capitalised on this and kept pushing to the end coming up with two fine scores of their own reducing the deficit to 31-19 before the referee blew the final whistle. 

With no game next week Gravesend entertain Horsham on 11th April in the final match of the regular season before a likely play off against the same side a week later.