PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY v DARTFORDIANS
This match was played on Trinity School’s pristine turf against a team a level above in terms of league hierarchy.

Three periods of 25 minutes each saw Trinity dominate the first of these when, playing against a strong wind, they linked well together and had much more territory and possession than the visitors. They created some good flowing moves with hooker Quinn Singh and winger Tom Fairclough prominent. Sam Goldschmied made an incisive run and then sadly had to leave the field on crutches after the dreaded pre-season injury ended his participation.  Fuad Agbalaya got stuck in and Archie McMillan was well involved until he was injured and had to be replaced for a while.   Trinity seemed bound to score when Tom Black broke clear and unselfishly unloaded with the line at his mercy but the pass went astray. Trinity’s support play was effective and they tackled well and retained possession from the breakdown to allow them continuity.  Harry Wilson was lively at scrum half and Olly Hubbard was heavily involved as usual.  The one area of real difficulty was the scrum, where Dartford were well on top. Despite Trinity’s dominance it was Dartfordians who managed to score in this period. Their first try came from a long clearing kick which took the ball, on the wind, to the home 22.  Trinity tidied up well but the clearing kick was blocked down and the gifted try was converted.  They scored again in the last play of the period when their scrum gave them a platform to press close in and cross. A good kick put them 14-0 to the good.

In the second period, Dartford were more in possession against the wind and their scrum was now even more of a problem for Trinity who had much more defending to do. Olly German had come on and put in a series of really powerful tackles, as well as a couple of strong runs and this stemmed the tide. Khalil Alleyn at flanker produced an impressive turnover and Trinity did well to keep Darfordians down to one try in this period. Another to impress was Tom Wilcox, with two fine chop-tackles and running good lines.

Trinity started the final period well with Singh again in rampaging mood and some lovely touches from Barney Kember who showed pace and intelligence. Some fine running moves were created and when the squad has more time to gel it seems that there will be plenty of creativity to develop these.  Darfordians created two more chances, which they exploited, and were deserving winners on the afternoon.

This was Trinity’s first opportunity to try out several new players such as Isiah Opara, Chris Read and Kitan Taiwo and several others. If availability is good this season they will do well, once people have more chances to play together.

New player/coach George Kimmins played at fly half for two sessions and is an able and exciting addition to the squad, and so welcome as a member of the Trinity staff.

Coach Matt Higgins was delighted to have so many debutants, mainly the result of enhanced links with Trinity school leavers. He says that a young but really exciting group is being built, and there were a lot of positives to take away from the runout.

REPORT FROM GERRY MURPHY
FLICKR PHOTOS VIA PETE FILEWOOD – CLICK HERE