Trinity RFC travelled over the border to Kent for their first pre-season game of the season which was played under the floodlights against Counties 1 Kent opposition, Beccehamian RFC.

Match report from Russell Jones

Trinity started strong with the lineout being particular impressive, a clear sign of the stamp new coach Matt Higgins has already added to the team, however were unable to put any points on the board to reward their early dominance.

After 10 mins it was Beccehamians who broke the deadlock with their right winger finishing off a well worked backs move to score in the corner.

Trinity were giving away far too many penalties and following a succession of these in the closing minutes of the first third, the Beccehamian 12 bulldozed over the line for the second try of the game.

Both sides made changes at the break with Trinity able to experiment with people changing positions however the period could not have started much worse with the Beccehamian left winger being given a free run in from the half way line to score in the corner.

With the score at 15-0 to the home team this was looking like it was going to be a hard day for Trinity, however things soon turned in their favour and they were rewarded with their opening try 7 mins into the third. The score came from captain for the day, Farooq Agbalaya, who picked up from the back of the scrum to fight his way over for the try. The ever-reliable boot of Dan Crouch then added a further two points.

There had been a large number of penalties during the game, unsurprising a number of which were for high tackles, as players and officials struggle to get themselves use to the new interpretation of the law. Unfortunately, Zouhaire Mihramane picked up yellow card for a high tackle, it did not help it was 5 metres out from the line and the referee was stood next to him as it happened. As it was a pre-season friendly Beccehamian agreed it should be a change of player rather than Trinity going down to 14 men!

The game continue to flow (in-between the stop-starts for all of the penalties) with both teams having further opportunities to add to their points tally. It was Trinity wo added the last points to the game with the try of the match as the stalwarts of Dan Crouch and Andrew Dean combined before 18-year-old debutant Aiden Sisk ran the perfect line to take the offload from Deano and run in for the score. Crouch again converted.

Along with Aiden Sisk Trinity also had debuts for 18-year-olds Alfie Lamb at prop and CJ Maiden (son of former player Chris “Casper” Maiden) in the back row. Not only were both making their club debuts but both were playing in their first games of adult rugby.

It was also good to have Charlie Geary Merrett back in the fold following a year out injured from a shoulder injury picked up last pre-season as well as James Hammond (son of former player James Hammond) back from his year in Spain.

All in all it was a good run out and a chance to work on a number of new moves and set pieces that had been bought in over pre-season.

Squad: Farooq Agbalaya, Dan Crouch, Andrew Dean, Ben Donovan, Charlie Geary Merrett, Matt Glenin, Jack Greenwood, James Hammond, Jason Hoffmann, Olly Hubard, Paul Johnson, Tim Jupp, Alfie Lamb, CJ Maiden, Marc McEvilly, Zouhaire Mihramane, Callum Plumb, Dom Plumb, Aiden Sisk, Dave Spedding, Adam Stammers, Ben Telfer, Ben Vaillant