Following the previous Kent Waterfall outing where we played Cranbrook at The Slade, the boys arrived at a wet and windswept Vigo RFC for the second round. Vigo, confident from a win over Sevenoaks, looked workmanlike and well organised as we glanced over from our warm-up behind the dead ball line of their 1sXV pitch. And so it turned out.

TJs started the match going downhill but into the wind. Early signs in the game were that Vigo defended well and weren't going to give up easily in the rucks, but TJs made pressure tell and eventually our determination to get the ball wide had Rudy Osher beat his man to the corner and draw first blood to TJs. There followed a period of pressure from TJs camping in the Vigo half, but Vigo's dogged resistance and a few weather-induced handling errors meant that this wasn't converted into a flow of points. However, TJs, through a combination of sticking to the game plan, working hard in the rucks, and some individual flair managed another try out on the left to give Osher a brace.

Turning round to play the second half uphill, Josh Streeten started to really control the game from 10, bringing the TJs centre Sam Beamish onto the ball at pace and denting the opposition's defence. Our forwards took up the challenge, carrying hard, steaming into the rucks and forcing Vigo onto the back foot. Out in the backs, a well worked backs move brought Josh Vincent into the game, who worked hard after contact and bagged a well deserved try.

TJs subs came on and added impact of their own as the game started to loosen up, with TJs ability to get the ball into the wider channels aided by the intial grunt added by the forwards meaning that Rudy Osher completed his hat-trick with another wide-wide effort, with Whillan Hartley moving the ball on well. Diesel Relle was next on the scoreboard with a typical barnstorming run, and real determination after contact meant he drove over the line dragging defenders with him. Johnny Foulkes added the final coup-de-grace, with a fleet footed effort from hooker running through the Vigo midfield to nick one at the death.

The match was far from one-sided though, Vigo were dogged in defence, workmanlike at the ruck and made serious inroads when they got their attack firing. They were also very welcoming and the whole fixture was played in tremendous spirit with an excellent shepherds pie afterwards - coaches included on the meal tickets!

Huge team performance by both sides, but TJs especially with the win!

TJs Players of the Match nominated by Vigo and TJs Coaches: Josh Vincent and Diesel Relle.

Tonbridge Juddians RFC

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Kickoff