All Blacks too strong for Hove 2s

Last Saturday the Sussex All Blacks played host to Hove 2’s in the Sussex 1 league.
Burgess Hill (black) v Hove II's. Pic Steve Robards SUS-150702-164451001Burgess Hill (black) v Hove II's. Pic Steve Robards SUS-150702-164451001
Burgess Hill (black) v Hove II's. Pic Steve Robards SUS-150702-164451001

With Hove in tenth and the men in black sitting in second the win should have been a formality.

In this case however the underdog had the bigger bark for the first 20 minutes as Hove took the game to Hill. after 5 minutes of sustained pressure the Hove outside centre showed great feet to craft a gap in the All Blacks backline where he went onto to score the converted try under the posts 0-7.

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The All Blacks rose to the challenge and following the restart they regathered the ball and kicked for territory. The Hove full back was carried over his own line resulting in a 5 metre scrum. At the scrum on the 15 metre line, Hill 8, Wattam picked up and went blind before passing to Owain Jenkins playing at 9 who passed to Max Wilson on the wing who dotted down, 5-7.

Hove came straight back when a knock on in the midfield led to their scrum half dummying and running 40 metres untouched for the converted score, 5-14.

The men in black where next on the score sheet as the backs pressed for the score. Outside centre Ant Baldwin was half tackled 20 metres out before popping to Adam Rezazadeh who ran in for the score that fly half Rhys Clarke converted 12-14.

Hove once again showed their endeavour and following a powerful run from their 6ft 5, 22 stone No.8 the winger was on hand to score the unconverted try in the corner, 12-19.

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The All Blacks gave themselves a dressing down after this score and for the last 5 minutes of the half they took hold of the game with Rezazadeh and Full back Dave Daly both crossing for scores one of which OJ converted for a half time score of 24-19.

The men in black regrouped at half time and a steely look of determination came over their faces.

For the next 40 minutes the All Blacks dominated all facets of play scoring 40 points including 6 tries and 5 conversions.

Their fitness, control, power and speed on thought was too much for Hove who began to tire. Tries came from Wilson, OJ, Ash Heward, Tim Daniel, Pete Blenkharn and captain Ben Dewey. The pick of the bunch was from Blenkharn who volleyed a loose ball over the Hove backline before collecting and dotting down. The final score was 64-19.

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The Sussex All Blacks MoM winning a free session at Sussex Osteopathy went to second row Cris Leahy for his outstanding defensive effort in the first half that kept further Hove scores out.

The Sussex All Blacks are next in action on the 21st February away to Rye.