By Mark Bruce

Poor discipline and basic errors combined to cost Gravesend dearly as they lost 21-17 to Reeds Weybridge in Regional 2 South East.

Gravesend began the brighter of the two sides, turning down a kickable three points in favour of an attempt at the corner. Ultimately the chance was wasted on a day of what might have been.

A couple of unforced errors allowed Reeds to get the first points of the game and then follow up with an unconverted try. A penalty was Gravesend’s only response in the first half as the sides changed ends with Reeds 11-3 ahead - but not before the home side’s Chris Shorter and Andrew Cooke both spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin for infringements.

Despite this, Gravesend continued to exert some on-field dominance in terms of position, if not converting that into clear-cut chances. Several promising moves ultimately came to nothing with the odd mistake and good defence stopping any momentum.

This was epitomised when, despite having good field position from a 50:22, Gravesend conceded the scrum and Reeds were able to run the full length of the pitch to score their second try. With a further penalty, Reeds led 21-12 going into the last few minutes.

A final effort from the Gravesend forwards saw them snatch a try at the death, Shorter going over, to take a bonus point, but the defeat leaves them 10th ahead of Saturday’s trip to league leaders Beckenham.