By Mark Bruce

Gravesend bounced back from their 44-22 defeat at Cobham to beat Sidcup 26-14 in Regional 2 South East.

A large crowd gathered at Rectory Field for the first meeting between the sides, separated by two divisions two years ago, in a number of years.

Gravesend started strongly, taking the ball into contact and making some inroads into the Sidcup defence. Two early penalties from the boot of Rhys Betts was their only reward, though, and as the half wore on the bigger side started to get into their stride.

On the half-hour mark ill-discipline and backchat cost Gravesend dearly and Sidcup drew level with two penalties of their own.

Gravesend managed to breach the away side’s defence as half-time approached when player-of-the-match Matt Hewitt, who was relentless all afternoon, received the ball to crash over for an 11-6 lead. There was still time for Sidcup to respond, though, and they did with a penalty to make it 11-9 at the break.

Playing into the wind in the second half, Gs opted against kicking the ball away. On 45 minutes Sidcup received a yellow card for collapsing the maul and Gravesend responded by trying another maul with this time Samraj Chahal being the beneficiary and taking the ball over. The extras were converted to move the score to 18-9.

Gravesend now had the upper hand and following some slick hands Andrew Cooke added the third try of the afternoon. Betts extended the lead courtesy of another penalty going into the last 10 minutes before Gravesend saw yellow and Sidcup scored with what was almost the last play of the game.

Gravesend are back in league action on October 14 at London Cornish.