Dover v Hove

Hove travelled for the third longest away trip of the season looking to put their season back on track after a tough start to 2019. Dover have had a difficult season themselves but it was clear that whoever their opponents were, they were intent on getting a result.

Hove reshuffled their team again, with Elliott Curl making his first start for the 1XV which shifted Ian Saunders to blind side (his second favourite position). Johnny Orme-Williams and Giles Emmerson formed a new centre partnership with Charlie Knight returning to the team for the first time in 6 weeks.

Hove won the game of rock, paper, scissors to kick off and opted to play up the slope and into the wind in the first half. Hove knew that Dover would pin them back all day so the defence had to be on point. Hove outmuscled Dover at almost every scrum and managed to steal a lot of ball at the lineout, but were not clinical enough when it came to making it count in the right areas. Kicking needlessly and getting outmuscled at the breakdown were the key trends of the day. Credit to Dover as they made it extremely difficult for Hove to get any quick ball.

At around 35 mins in, Dover eventually managed to piece together a few phases, orchestrated by their fly half who threw the ball wide and Dover scored in the corner, conversion successful. Dover 7 Hove 0.

Hove has one chance on the stroke half time to get on the score sheet but Phil Dugard hit the post and Dover led at half time 7-0.

The message was clear at half time, the slope and the wind were favourable so use it effectively, unfortunately Hove seemed to fall asleep straight after kick off when Dover broke through an unguarded ruck, they made huge gains into Hove’s 22 and eventually their fly half weaved through and scored under the posts. Conversion successful, Dover 14 Hove 0.

This seemed to be the catalyst Hove needed, some effective carries by Rob Ward and Tyler Hooper (who was also playing county the next day!) forced Dover onto the back foot. Eventually the ball spilled out the ruck on the blind side and MacDonald grubbered it on, having not seen Saunders outside him. MacDonald then beat his man to score in the corner. Conversion unsuccessful, Dover 14 Hove 5.

Hove continued to utilise their forwards well with Curl and Peake making yards down the pitch, but the breakdown continued to be Hove’s downfall. Eventually Dover managed to win a penalty just outside Hove’s 22 with their skipper opting for posts, this was duly converted. Dover 17 Hove 5.

With 25 minutes remaining Hove’s backline pieces together a few phases which saw Pavlides chip the ball over his opposite man, the ball fell awkwardly for the Dover winger and Pavlides regathered feeding Bryn Garrish to go under the posts. Conversion successful. Dover 17 Hove 12.

Hove collected the restart cleanly and managed to win a few penalties which saw them march up the pitch, Guy Patton (now at 13) was proving to be a real handful all game and managed to get Hove into the red zone. Hove built the phases nicely but again the breakdown was their undoing, Dover managed to clear their lines which proved to be Hove’s last real chance of winning the game.

Further drama was to follow before time, Dover had successfully managed to get into Hove territory and after some Hove indiscipline, ‘fisty’ Phil Dugard allegedly started a scuffle. The referee decided that he hadn’t seen anything else so he sin binned Dugard, Dover took 3 points which saw Hove finish with 14 men and no losing bonus point. Full time Dover 20 Hove 12.

The harsh truth was that Hove really only had theirselves to blame, they had more possession, more opportunities but failed to capitalise. Credit to Dover as they dogged out a win that was thoroughly needed in order to avoid relegation. Hove need to fix their issues fast before next week, which sees the inform side in the league, Old Colfs visit the rec.