DARTFORDIANS were entertained by rivals Erith on Saturday, knowing there is never an easy game against them despite their lowly league position.

The match started in perfect rugby playing conditions and Erith began the brighter and made some probing attacks against the visitors.

The referee was obviously going to make his mark and was blowing the whistle quite frequently, which was disrupting the flow of the match.

Darts eventually infringed on their own 22m line and it was a simple task for the Erith kicker to convert the penalty to go 3-0 ahead.

The visitors immediately responded by using their heavy forwards to drive Erith back into their own half and some desperate and decent defence kept Darts at bay.

Erith then attacked again from deep but were trying to be a bit too expansive and John Colmer easily saw the long pass and intercepted to run half the length of the field to score, with Griggs adding the conversion.

Darts continued to press and a fine diagonal kick by Griggs pushed Erith back to their five metre line.

There was an infringement and darts were awarded a five metre scrimmage, which was solid and drove back the home team over their try for Renno to score a simple try which was again converted by Griggs.

Darts were now looking like the team at the top of the table and drove Erith back into their own half.

However, spirited and brave defence kept them at bay.

Darts spilled the ball, which allowed Erith to counterattack, but again they were too adventurous and in a carbon copy of the first try, Colmer intercepted but this time was supported by Dan Phillips who went over.

Griggs again converted.

Darts created a number of scoring opportunities and would have scored had Chris Lovell not been high tackled two metres from the line.

Unfortunately for Erith, their big second row Dave Hill was sin binned, which put the home team under further pressure.

Another scrum for Darts and again it was Gav Renno at No 8 who scored from the pushover.

The second half started and it was expected the visitors would start to steamroller the smaller Erith forwards.

However, this was not be the case as a combination of constant stoppages disrupted any flow in the game and it all became a bit untidy, which was to the benefit of Erith.

Lock Paul Brown was then sin binned for his first infringement and Darts a man short had to defend for 15 minutes.

This season, however, Darts have brought great discipline to their defensive line up and kept Erith at bay.

Surprisingly despite giving away six or seven consecutive penalties, the referee didn’t penalise Darts with either a penalty try or another binning.

The match was becoming a bit fractious as both teams became frustrated at the lack of flow and pattern to the match and on a couple of occasions players had to be pulled apart for handbags at five paces.

Having weathered this storm, Darts started to win the ball again and there were a couple of decent attacks by Dan Phillips and Babs Ojo which were stopped by decent Erith defending.

Eventually Darts got their game back together and from some excellent driving play, won four consecutive rucks and found the humongous Garry Jarman, who was never going to be stopped five metres from the line.

Griggs converted to give a final score of 33 -3.