Gravesend 22-28 Tring

In front of a huge crowd at Rectory Field on Saturday for what had been billed as the fate deciding game of both Gravesend’s and Tring’s season, it wasn’t until the last five minutes that the latter went in front but even then the tension held until the final whistle.
Graversend went in front on the five minute mark when the returning Dave Dorton slotted over the first of his four penalty chances of the afternoon.
Territorially in control from the outset, Gs were spreading the ball wide at every opportunity, but for those of us that had been at the game at Cow Lane back in November, there was a sense of de ja vu as handling errors put paid to numerous scoring chances.
That said, it was a superb set of passing moves that saw Stuart Douglas send Chris Meddings over in the corner.
Tring’s penalty count was rising as they failed to find any answers to the strong Gravesend forwards, and this prevented any real flow to the game.
Dorton added a second penalty on fifteen minutes, to stretch the home advantage to 11-0 but this was scant reward for the efforts of the forwards.
Both of the home locks, Tomas Ford and James, “Wabbler” Newman, were playing a big part in the attacking forward play, but the handling errors outside were handing the opportunities to counter attack back to Tring.
The usually reliable Tom Newton had a penalty miss just before the end of the first quarter, but as the game came to the twenty minute mark, he made certain of his second chance as he added the conversion to Nathan Lambden’s try.
With the ball in hand and led by Newton, the visitors three-quarter line always looked dangerous and it was only last ditch tackles that kept them from scoring on several occasions during the next quarter.
More stopping of the play as offences prevented the free movement of the ball, and by the interval Dorton had added a further two successes to lift Gs away to a 17-7 lead at the break.
The third period continued much as the first two, major efforts for little reward, and the game wasn’t helped by the sin binning of a player from each side, Dave Dorton and Nick Radley, after they exchanged blows following a stoppage.
In control and looking to build on the first half lead, a missed penalty from Meddings did not look to be crucial.
Marc Klus finished off one of the many forward drives to take G’s advantage to 22-7 and although the conversion narrowly missed, this commanding lead looked safe.
When Tring finally put some play together the game was taken into the home twenty-two and as Gs defended, Klus was judged to have offended once too often and was sent to the bin for ten minutes.
This seemed to spur the visitors on and with twenty minutes of the game remaining, a tap penalty move saw Lambden burst over for his second try close to the posts. Newton added the conversion to narrow the score to 22-14.
As Gravesend looked to rebuild their lead, they were caught short in defence and saw their lead ebb away as a second try was added while they were down to fourteen men, this time flanker Rob Baldwin raced in between the posts.
Tom Newton, again on target moved the scores to 22-21.
Desperate to keep the winning margin, Gravesend threw everything into their attack but were again caught short of defenders as a Tring break-out saw Sam Barnes make fifty metres and pass for a bonus point try from Tim Holgate converted by Newton.
22-28 down and behind for the first time in the game, Gs called on all their efforts and the last three minutes saw them camped inside the visitor’s twenty-two but some stout defending on the part of the “Tring Boys” saw them hold on to their win.
With Thurrock winning at Tonbridge Juddians, Gravesend’s fate looks sealed as they face certain relegation from the national leagues barring a miracle during the last two fixture weeks of the season.