Eastbourne edge out East Grinstead in thriller on great day for club

Eastbourne started the stronger and attacked well for the first 20 minutes, forcing an early penalty, followed by a try and conversion, all within six minutes and all scored by captain Jake Howe, who had another good day at the office, particularly with the boot.

The home side missed two more opportunities that they normally would have taken, which would have extended the lead and been reflective of the early pressure.

Grinstead eventually woke up and started to get into the game and built a lot a phases and controlled the tempo of the game, clearly looking to slow the speed of it down.

They forced two penalties and probably deserved more out of the second quarter of the game, before Dylan Viles crossed just before half time and extended the lead to 15-6 at the break.

East Grinstead started stronger in the second half and had long spells of dominance, where as Eastbourne looked frustrated at times, but kept to the defensive plan, before Grinstead crossed on 55 minutes to narrow the game to four points, the Grinstead goal kicker certainly had his rangefinder on and kicked superbly.

Both sides traded two penalties each before East Grinstead scored a try again, following a very sloppy 10 minutes from the home side.

The score was now 21-24 and the score did change hands six times in the last 15 minutes, before Konrad O'neil crossed from short range, with a powerful pick and go, as the home side had a long spell of possession, following a yellow card and a couple of penalties, to put them in range to launch a final attack.

As the conversion was kicked and missed, the final whistle blew and Eastbourne won by two points, 26-24, in a very tough encounter.

Owen Davies was named MoM after playing out of position on the open side of the scrum, a good display in the lineout and solid work rate around the park.

He also showed he can be dominant in the tackle which has been missing at times this season compared to last.

Eastbourne now sit fifth in the table, on four wins, four losses and one draw, but face undefeated Teddington away next time out.

ERFC twos produced a fine performance away to the Steyning first team, which resulted in a 17-33 win for Eastbourne.

The development side (third team) narrowly lost 7-14 to a strong Seaford in a well-contested game.

The first team had a few injuries last week so the squad depth was tested, but the club still managed to get more than 60 players game time and produce two wins out of three games.

The clubhouse was full for a sell-out lunch, which produced a very large home crowd.