In a thoroughly entertaining match, Vigo gave as good a performance as they have all season, two late tries giving the scoreline an unfair slant. Medway’s excellent full back, Mac Perry, was the obvious difference to the two sides, his hat-trick of tries the stand out feature. And yet, at one stage, Vigo with a cobbled together side, and playing with 14 men for the last half hour came withing a try of causing a major upset. They played with commitment and pride, a dash of spice and showed that, with all of their big players back, they deserve to be in this division.
Vigo started at a gallop but as soon as they lost the ball, Medway whipped the ball along the line to Perry who shot off ominously, breaking the line but his pass was dropped letting Vigo off the hook. Relishing the fight, they counter attacked and won a penalty which enabled Tony Whitehead, whose kicking out of hand was outstanding all game, to find a good touch. Vigo, with Jake French filling in at loosehead and 49 year old, Darren Cox, anchoring the other side, put Medway under some pressure, and Vigo began to build up a head of steam. Young Matt Denham had his conk re-aligned in a collision and was replace by Liam Wiltshire, who had been in palliative care all week, apparently, forcing Vigo into a reshuffle of resources. Medway gave away a couple of penalties, and after a late tackle, second row Cameron Goodwell, was invited to spend ten minutes in the cooler – although the afternoon could not have got that much colder, the first really cold day of the winter ensuring that the spectators were well wrapped up.
Vigo took immediate advantage of their numerical advantage, winning a line out from the subsequent penalty, and driving furiously over from ten metres, captain George Rawlings emerging from the bottom of the pile. Vigo set about making Medway pay and were soon driving deep back into Medway territory but a loose kick was seized upon and Medway attacked from deep, experienced Simon Rumsey kicked long and deep, and Vigo failed to deal with the bouncing ball. Liam Keenan seized the ball, brushed off a couple of weak tackles and sprinted to the line, much to the delight of the vociferous Medway supporters – well, one of them at least, who certainly had a fine soprano voice (but I am tone deaf so it might have been a screech). Anyway, Keenan scored, Perry converted and Medway were in the lead.
But Keenan was to go from hero to villain within minutes. Vigo had defended the ensuing Medway charge reasonably well and when they won a penalty, Whitehead once again kicked long to the corner. Young Keenan tried to be a tad clever, jumping up to stop the ball from going into touch but managing to bat the ball back over his line, where there was no-one apart from Vigo’s right wing, Sam Tye, who had chased the kick and was able to plunge gratefully on the ball for his first try for the 1st XV, fair reward to the likeable guy who only took up rugby last year. That certainly shocked Medway, and they were obviously rattled by Vigo’s attitude and spirit. Their vast coterie of coaches were beseeching from the sidelines, but Medway just could not get into their stride. Vigo, with nothing to lose, just kept coming, driven on by the likes of French, Rawlings, Cox and the irrepressible Nick McPherson. And it was, indeed, McPherson who scored next, after an excellent up ‘n under from Whitehead caused panic in the Medway defence. McPherson seized upon the ball, moved the ball to Liam Wiltshire, who drove, was stopped short but Vigo recycled the ball quickly to McPherson who scored in the corner.
This was all too much for Medway, who couldn’t believe the indignity being heaped upon them by Medway. It certainly got too much for Simon Rumsey who had a few words with the excellent referee, Alan Whittingham, who sent him to the NBC for ten minutes. To be fair to Mr Rumsey he had a bit of a case after a ‘no-arms tackle’ had seemingly been missed by the ref, but them’s the knocks in this game of ours and off he went to chunter away amongst the coaching corps.
Vigo again had the numerical advantage but made a hash of the line out ensuing from the penalty, losing the ball, which Medway passed down the line to Keenan who simply gassed it down the left wing leaving all number of would-be defenders floundering in his wake, gaining redemption for his earlier faux pas with a superb try. Perry’s conversion brought Medway back to within a point at the break.
Half time saw the Medway team assailed on all sides by the coaching team and whatever was said seemed to have an effect on the home side. They attacked Vigo right from the off. Worryingly, Vigo were falling off the tackles, perry was starting to really open up, their new signing from Blackheath, Todd Revell, looking to be a fine addition to the Medway ranks. Suddenly Vigo were looking a tad bedraggled, not helped by harry Lingham being forced off with his recurrent shoulder injury. The commitment of the likes of Lingham, who continues to paly despite dislocating his shoulder a few weeks ago, his replacement Will James practically playing on one leg after a damaged hamstring, Wiltshire after rising from his death bed, Callum Gibson – excellent in his first game for the 1st in 4 years- Rob Lancaster and many other playing in unfamiliar positions to help out the team is exemplary. Unfortunately, however, Medway were not in a charitable frame of mind even when Vigo went down to 14 men on the hour mark, Dom Mickelburgh having to leave the field concussed. (Poor Marissa , the Girl With The Magic Sponge, should be putting in for overtime.)
Now, Mac Perry took control of the match. Only playing for the 2nd team, because of the promotion of ex-Vigo player, Harrison Fermor to the 1st XV, and obviously out to prove a point, began to run the ball from all angles and positions. Vigo were unable to lay a hand upon him as he ran a brilliant line to score under the posts, converting his own try. Within a few minutes he repeated the dose, another brilliant run from his own 22 should have seen him score again but a last ditch tackle stopped the try but he was able to flip the ball up to Matt Brightman who had an easy run in, Perry converting. That looked to be it, Vigo down to 14 men, Medway’s tails up, the Medway crowd ever strident – well, one of them anyway. But this is Vigo. Will James had hobbled on for Mickelburgh and fired up Vigo’s scrum, as well as being a nuisance in open play,which certainly didn’t endear himself to the Medway coaching staff. And, fittingly, it was James who scored. Vigo had battered away at Medway, joyously, defiantly, smashing into their hosts. Medway was being driven back, conceding any number of penalties. Whitehead kept up the pressure with his line kicking, Vigo kept driving and there was James burrowing over from close range to score. Whitehead converted and suddenly, unbelievably, Vigo were withing a try of causing a major upset.
Needless to say, Perry and Revell had had enough of this nonsense. A few more Vigo attacks were repulsed with some withering hits. With a couple of minutes to go, Perry broke through some rather tired defending to score two excellent tries, one of which he converted to give him a personal tally of 25 points. All that was left was for Rumsey to punt the ball into touch for the victory.

Vigo team: M.Denham (rep: L.Wiltshire 11’); S.Tye, C.Gibson, N.McPherson, L.Pitchell; T.Whitehead, D.Carslaw; D.Cox, G.Rawlings (capt.), J.French; B.Howe, H.Lingham (rep: W.James 51’) ; R.Lancaster, K.Hall; D.Mickelburgh

Referee Alan Whittingham (Kent).

Scorers: Medway: Tries: Keenan (13’, 40’), Perry (56’, 78’,80’), Brightman ( 65’). Cons: Perry (5)
Vigo: Tries: Rawlings (11’), Tye (19’) , McPherson (30’), James (72’). Cons: Whitehead (1)

Man of the Match: Mac Perry (Medway) was superb throughout the match. For Vigo, Jake French, won the SPOTM after a whole-hearted performance at prop , 2nd row and centre.

David Wiltshire (Vigo legend) : we were certainly in the game in the first half, playing with the consistency we showed against Dartford Valley. Our scrum started well, went through a rocky period but finished well. We played with a lot of commitment but they had a couple of class players who were the big difference. We simply missed our big players, who turned the game in the second half. But I was encouraged by the performance, we showed we can compete in this Division, but we need the commitment shown by this team to spread through the rest of the players.