Blues make it a grave end for Gravesend

Blues made six changes with Ben Deavall and Tyrese Makasi coming into the pack, Alex Margarson and Navitalai Vosanibole joining the backs and Joe Woods and Ed Kendall on the bench.

On an unseasonably warm afternoon Gravesend kicked off up the slope towards Oaklands Pavilion. In a scrappy opening period, Gravesend made their ambitions clear with three kicks to the corner, rather than relatively easy attempts at the posts. Good defensive work from Blues kept it scoreless.

On 15 minutes Gravesend opened the scoring with a penalty in front of the posts, but Chichester upped the tempo and on 24 minutes Charlie Norton bravely took an “up and under” just inside the opposition half.

From the ruck Matt McLagan fed Josh Vakasisikakala who fumbled the ball backwards out wide to the feet of Niall Wright. Gravesend stopped, assuming a knock-on, but Wright picked up the ball and made 10m before offloading to Rhys Thompson for a simple run-in. Conversion missed, 5-3.

On 35 minutes Norton hoisted a high ball on halfway and knocked it back to Stee Vasuturaga. The Fijian prop charged forward and offloaded to James Smith who with a great change of direction, beat the last two defenders to dot down under the posts. Converted by Norton, 12-3.

McLagan whipped a ball out to Thompson who found Joe Woods travelling at speed. The prop made 15m before passing to Will Prior and on to Matereti Waqanisua, who was stopped 5m from the line. The forwards inched the ball forward in front of the posts and Smith dived through a gap to score his second try. Converted by Norton, making it 19-3 at the break.

The first 10 minutes of the second half saw play ebb and flow between the 22m lines. Finally, Blues moved the ball across the pitch to Vultures’ Corner, where the pack mauled the ball forward for Tyrese Makasi to score the bonus point try. An excellent conversion from Norton - 26-3.

A Gravesend infringement allowed Thompson to kick into Vultures’ Corner and the pack mauled towards the line but were stopped. With a series of pick and goes, the ball was moved forward and Woods dived over to score, 33-3.

Play was moved to the adjacent pitch after an injury to a Chichester player that required on-field medical attention. On 68 minutes, Alex Margarson danced his way through and dotted down for 38-3.

With a couple of minutes left the visitors gave away a penalty and Thompson kicked for the corner. Chichester moved the ball to the wing for the Wright, who battered his way through to score in the corner. Another excellent conversion made it 45-3.

Head coach Ken Dowding said: “The boys dug deep, were relentless and are starting to have more belief.” MoM: James Smith.

On Saturday, Chichester visit Beckenham.