Medway Dragons Rugby League Football Club
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International Honours for Medway Dragons
Medway Dragons Wheelchair RL
The first Wheelchair RL team in London & The South was launced at Medway Park, Gillingham when Medway Dragons RLFC held their first ever Wheelchair RL session with England Coach Phil Roberts, the man who coached England to World Cup Final glory in Australia in 2008.
Photos in Photo Gallery
Please see Events for more infomation on the International matches planned for Sunday 29th August 2010 at Medway Park
Australians at Medway Dragons
Medway Dragons played hosts to the Australian International team on Tuesday evening. The Australian Masters team were on the tail end of their Great Britain tour which had seen them play 4 fixtures prior to playing a London select team including one full test match versus Great Britain.
The evening of Tuesday 20th July provided a great initiation for 20 men from across London and the South East to play against an experienced Masters team. The evening was kicked off with a 4 team touch tournament made up of teams from the local Medway community. The touch tournament was a great show of touch rugby and provided a great warm-up to the main event, with the pavilion breaching capacity the game between London and Australia looked set to be a great exhibition of Masters Rugby League.
The London squad captained by Dave Bold of South London Storm, donned a vivid purple kit as they lined up to kick off to the green and gold of Australia. The London sideline was managed by the one and only Mike Stephenson. The seasoned Australian team showed some real glitz in attack and a fantastic tactic of using their Gold shorts (60+) in the middle, meaning a ‘touch’ was a sufficient tackle. This was the Londoners first game together as a team, and first experience of playing against a team hosting Gold shorted players. The Australians camped down in the London half for the duration of the first half, using their older players to their full potential drew in the London defence and passed the ball before being tagged. The scoring was very one sided at half time, for which I think the Londoners were quite happy that scoring was irrelevant.
Half time saw the introduction of London’s secret weapon in the form of manager come player Mike Stephenson, who fashioned London’s first pair of Gold shorts. The Londoners got back into the game in the second half and would have got 2 scores on the board if Stevo had not caught and dropped his two interception attempts (Australia scored off the back off both of these defensive sets). Although a different London team in the second half they could not prevent the experienced Australian team from scoring, someone in the crowd even compared them much like to the Harlem Globe trotters, just a little bit older and not as slender. A fantastic spectacle of rugby league and how Masters should be played, the addition of Mike Stephenson to the London squad was superb and helped cap the day off nicely. The Australian team were brilliant on and off the field entertaining all the spectators after the game.
Medway Dragons were amazing hosts for both the London and Australia teams, which helped provide a clear image of the direction that Masters in London is going.
Please see all the pictures on our facebook group:
International Honours for Medway Dragons
Medway Dragons have had international recognition for the first time in the three years since formation when Martin Coyd played for Great Britain in the Masters Test Match against Australia at Rochdale.
Coyd was selected in the back row and played most of the match in fantastic surroundings in Lancashire. Light rain had softened up the ground and made for an entertaining match which was an end to end affair. Defences had to be big and smart to keep out the skilled antipodeans and the mission was successful.
The Aussies are on tour in the UK and as well as the Test Match, are playing matches against Cumbria and London. The Garrison Stadium hosts the London fixture on Tue 20 Jul 10 at 1945 hrs as the last match of the tour.
At 45 years old, Martin Coyd is a part of the thriving Masters section at Medway Dragons. Masters Rugby League is for Over 35’s who would like to carry on playing this, the toughest of games, maybe resurrect a playing career or perhaps get involved for the first time. Players’ ages are identified by different coloured shorts, over 60’s wear gold, and the rules of contact reflect this. It really is a game for everyone.
Plans are afoot for a trip Down Under for the lads from London in the near future and competition for places will be hot.
The Dragons Masters next festival is at St Albans on Sun 25 Jul 10 followed by a trip to Brighton in August
Sponsored relay Channel Swim
Chris Butler (Henry's Dad) and four others, Paul Hussey, Dan Butler, Jon Munday & Sarah Dodsworth successfully completed the Channel swim on Tuesday 22nd June 2010 for Muscular Distrophy and Medway Dragons.
They left Dover harbour at 5.30am with Dan Butler in the water for the first hour and it was Chris who stood on French soil at 11pm in total darkness after they swam 35 miles (due to strong currents) in 16 hours 36 minutes.
They would like to sincerely thank everyone who sponsored them and gave them the drive to continue when the currents were strong and they were so cold.
