MATCH REPORT 29TH October 2022

Dover v Southwark Lancers
Full-time result – 50:0

‘Great Expectations’

And so it was that our illustrious first XV hosted Southwark Lancers to a match where, given their respective performances this season and relative positions within the league, much was expected of the Dover team.
Such circumstances bring with them the danger of breeding a dangerous degree of complacency, and indeed this was the concern among many of the Dover faithful who had turned out on a pleasantly unseasonal afternoon to watch their heroes in action.
Any fears along these lines where soon laid to rest by a dominant Dover performance, although some of the more ambitious of their players are likely to be disappointed not to have put even more points on the board.
The first ten minutes or so saw the game ebb and flow as each team sought to get the measure of the other, but it wasn’t long before Dover’s 12, Beaumont (who must surely have a mirror in his attic a-la Dorian Gray, such is his ability to defy the aging process), took advantage of some inadequate Lancer defending and playing uphill scored the first of his two tries. The increasingly confident, indeed, excellent, Moore at 10 duly converted, and the tone of the match became set. Within three minutes of the opening try, Dover’s second favourite Welshman, Garin Price (George Pugh remains the favourite Son of the Valleys at DRFC, at least at the moment) scored the first of his superb trio of tries. If only the crowd knew the words to ‘Land of My Fathers’, or even ‘Men of Harlech’, the hallowed ground of The Crabble would have echoed to their voice, but as it was we had to make do with a cry of ‘There’s lovely, isn’t it!’ from one of the less culturally-sensitive supporters.
Shortly thereafter the Lancer 13, Harry Cameron, suffered a nasty injury to his knee. Enter stage left the medical hero of the 80 minutes, our own Joe Rodgers, who ably assisted by the cheerful and calm Mrs Beaumont, administered to the stricken player who was gently removed from the field of play. The prompt and efficient care provided was a demonstration of our club’s best qualities and was appreciated by the opposing team. We wish Harry a speedy recovery.
Despite this setback, the Lancers pulled themselves together and a spirited run into Dover’s half was only brought to an end by the intervention of Charge, playing at 14. Still clearly absolutely seething at the outrageous description, which must surely border on the libellous, of his hairstyle last week by the scribe at Vigo, Charge ended the run with an excellent tackle that was appreciated by the loyal crowd. Equally impressive was Smith the Younger, playing at 7, whose work-rate and commitment throughout was exceptional and an absolute pleasure to watch.
Another injury to a Lancer player some thirty minutes into the match (again promptly and professionally dealt with by Joe) saw them down to thirteen men, and in the finest spirit of the great game Dover matched their numbers. This, understandably, did seem to have something of a deleterious effect on Dover’s game plan, and yet it did not prevent a flurry of tries – firstly from the 13, Bryant, who then followed it up with another shortly afterwards, then the Welsh Wizard Price scored again and the difficult conversion was executed superbly by Moore.
Halftime came and went, and Dover resumed playing downhill. Bryant quickly scored again, followed by the housewives favourite, Tom Sayers, who turned a difficult chance into 5 more points. This was shortly followed by what can only be described as a unfortunate misunderstanding at a scrum (Dover’s scrummaging was excellent throughout) in which the Lancer’s hooker took great exception to the activity of Dover’s number 2, the eternally-effervescent Kirk Savage, who reacted to the excitement displayed by his opposite number with a look of great perplexity and an air of innocence that simply elevated him above such vulgar goings-on. Such innocence was not always so abundantly displayed by Dover’s replacement prop, Swinbourne, whose immense power, aggression, and energy seems undiminished by injuries to both shoulders and his robustly enthusiastic clearing out, in what looked like into the middle of next week, of some poor unfortunate Lancer soul at a ruck saw Dover penalised.
Yet the Lancers failed to capitalise on what was an excessive amount of penalties conceded by Dover. To be fair, some of the refereeing decisions were perhaps influenced by the fact the referee was being observed by an official from the RFU. A further try from Price (who demonstrated excellent captaincy throughout the game, ably assisted by the v-c, Piddleston, who managed, as always, to provide a steadying influence among the forwards) was again competently converted by Moore. Beaumont then scored again, with one of his legendary runs from inside Dover’s half. Although the result of the game was never in doubt, nerves were slightly jangled by the late-in-the-game binning of Tom Sayers, who took one for the team, but managed to retain his cheerful attitude as he wandered off the pitch with his smile intact. No doubt contemplation of his lucrative contract with Vidal Sassoon makes the maintenance of his always-sunny disposition a straightforward business.
Any last minute Lancer hopes of getting some points on the board were cruelly dashed when an impressive Lancer run was ended by the tackling of Carpenter at 11. Carpenter had a relatively quiet game by his own high standards, but his pace on the wing was clearly identified as a threat early on by the Lancers and their targeting of him no doubt created space elsewhere.
In summary, a good performance by Dover, from a first XV that are increasingly displaying the hallmarks of an excellent side who enjoy their Rugby.
They were heroes all today, and we look forward to the next game, which is away at Westcombe Park.