Tonbridge Juddians 40 Westcombe Park 5: National League 2 East match report
09:33, 28 October 2024
By Adam Hookway
Tonbridge’s perfect start to the National League 2 East season goes on - but the leaders needed time to hit top gear in Saturday’s 40-5 thrashing of Westcombe Park.
It took TJs the best part of 50 minutes before they were able to lift their supporters’ spirits with a thrilling burst of power, pace and mostly accuracy to take the game away from the visitors and notch up their eighth maximum points win on the bounce.
Both sides struggled to put meaningful phases together and TJs lacked accuracy as the Combe defence slammed them out time and again. The one ray of light for the hosts came with an Isaac Ridge try after 14 minutes, sandwiched between two yellow cards for Combe as their defensive efforts erred on the illegal side.
Tom White converted for a 7-0 lead and it took Park until the half-hour mark to close to within two points with a try from a driven lineout by the pack.
Half-time arrived with very little spark to the game but Shadyn Osgood was the catalyst TJs needed. The match was being played almost exclusively in the Combe half and the defensive dam was starting to creak.
Duncan Tout came off his wing, Osgood then took it on and while Combe clung to a foot he drove on before being felled short of the line. Connor Lloyd, however, was on hand to scoop up the ball and dive over, with White converting, to put TJs 14-5 up with 10 second-half minutes gone.
Tonbridge continued to dominate territory and finally got their lineout drive under way with two tries from Will Holling on 63 and 67 minutes, both converted, taking the game away from Combe to secure a bonus point to boot.
More powerful running from the TJs backs set up Osgood again and this time he wasn’t to be stopped as he dived over after 70 minutes.
It was an intercept, though, that saw TJs score their final try as Harrison Sim caught a Combe pass and headed for the line. He was tackled short, but offloaded deftly to Tom Kendrick who dived over to give White a final and fifth conversion.
Tonbridge are next in action at Barnes on November 9.
