Eastbourne edge past Pulborough – Haywards Heath hold on at Crawley

Eastbourne 29 Pulborough 22

Counties 2 Sussex

Eastbourne eventually got the better of an incredibly strong Pulborough XV at Park Avenue.

Both sides looked to play at pace and in a positive spirit – which led to an excellent game for the large crowd, but a nervy afternoon for the coaching teams.

With the Pulborough coach telling the Eastbourne coaching team he was putting out the best 18 players he could field, this gave Eastbourne the sort of test they needed ahead of a massive clash away to East Grinstead tomorrow week. EG are snapping at Eastbourne’s heels in second place in the league.

Eastbourne were left a little perplexed by the referee, who penalised them regularly and gave them two yellow cards.

At half-time and full-time he couldn’t really put his finger on why, when he had only penalised Pulborough a handful of times.

This led to Eastbourne only really having half a dozen chances to score, but they took four of them with three conversions kicked by Jake Howe and a penalty to keep some breathing space going into the final 20 minutes.

Captain Howe was first to cross as some lovely structured play tied the away side up nicely for him to find a gap to step the full-back and touch down.

Eastbourne scored the second of the day by moving the away side around again and finding hooker Joe Bettles out wide.

He stormed down the wing warthog style, flattening the full-back to score.

This is when the game really changed in Pulborough’s favour and they scored two tries after Eastbourne were continually penalised in their 22 and conceded a yellow card.

The last five minutes of the first half saw Bianchi cross for a superb long range attack, with Pulborough scoring on the stroke of half-time.

These two tries were either side of another yellow card for Eastbourne.

It was 19-17 at half-time which meant the second half would be a tight affair .

Eastbourne showed their forward dominance with a good powerful try by birthday boy Paul Smith.

Then came a penalty for Eastbourne which was met by the biggest cheer of the afternoon, which Howe kicked.

Eastbourne finished strongly and their superior fitness told towards the end, with a three-man overlap on the try line.

Eastbourne were about to score when the Pulborough winger slapped the ball down then gathered it to go the length of the pitch to score.

The hosts were expecting a penalty try, or at least a penalty, but the referee was not intrested.

Mason Dowle put in a great chase from his wing to cut off the winger and make the kick very difficult, and it was missed.

The final score was 29-22 to the home side.

The MoM award went to full-back Mason Dowle and winger Dlyan Viles for brilliant tackling, commitment and work rate.

Knowing what Eastbourne came through to win this game gives them massive confidence ahead of the East Grinstead clash.

Crawley 24 Haywards Heath 27

Counties 2 Sussex

After their heaviest defeat of the season to leaders Eastbourne, Heath found a way to win at Crawley to get the second half of their season properly under way.

The home side were out of the blocks quickly with plenty of possession although they could not make much use of it as Heath's defensive set-up worked well.

On eight minutes a Crawley attack was turned over and Heath broke from inside their own half and put the ball through hands for outside centre Chris Neill to show a clean pair of heels to the defence and score virtually under the posts. Tom Wharton converted for a 0-7 lead.

Soon Crawley kicked through into the Heath half where the ball was fielded by James Trinder, who drew the cover to release fly half Wharton who outpaced would-be tacklers for another try and a 0-12 advantage.

Heath then proceeded to let Crawley back into the game. The restart was not gathered cleanly, allowing the Crawley pack to bulldoze up and over the line for a converted score – 7-12.

Worse was to follow as Heath lost a man to the bin for a high tackle and then failed to compete at the breakdown and missed their tackles – and the Crawley forwards ploughed up the park before releasing their backs for their second try, 14-12.

Heath indiscipline continued and two more yellow cards over the course of 15 minutes saw Heath playing the rest of the half with 13 then 14 men.

This was well exploited by Crawley and they went over again for a half-time lead of 21-12.

Heath needed a reaction in the second half. They’d been on top in the lineouts for most of the game and now started to turn the screw at scrum time. A penalty kicked to the corner saw a lineout from where Heath mauled and broke up to the Crawley line.

The ball was recycled rand forward pressure stretched the Crawley defence allowing captain Wilf Bridges to burrow over in the corner – 21-17.

A series of scrum penalties were won by Heath and a break off the back of one of those scrums saw Bridges over for his second. Wharton struck the kick through the uprights which earned a 21-24 lead.

Crawley managed to get possession in the visitors’ territory and when Heath infringed at the breakdown the home kicker slotted the three points for 24-24 going in to the last few minutes.

With five minutes remaining Heath worked their way deep into the Crawley 22 where a blindside break was turned over and Crawley tried to play out but were stopped in front of their own posts and conceded the penalty.

Wharton chipped the kick through the posts for 24-27.

Crawley played the last couple of minutes in the Heath 22. A penalty was kicked to the corner but second row Henry Dickson leapt highest and took the ball for Heath and it was kicked out for the final whistle.

Heath travel to Burgess Hill this week.

Haywards Heath Colts 5 Horsham Colts 3

After two wins in friendlies since the start of the new year, Heath went into this colts game with confidence despite a few players being at South East Regional trials.

Heath made a barnstorming start and were swarming all over the visitors try line for the first ten minutes. An immense defensive effort from Horsham coupled with some white line fever from Heath saw the visitors hold out and settle into it.

The game ebbed and flowed with the Horsham pack really showing that they were up for this challenge and causing Heath plenty of problems at the breakdown whilst Heath looked likelier to break through the midfield.

A Heath infringement in front of the posts saw Horsham slot the penalty for a 0-3 lead.

The second half saw Heath starting to pick and go with their forwards but handling errors and poor decision making coupled with the continued ferocity of the Horsham pack meant they were unable to get the score.

With the last play of the game Heath got hands on the ball in midfield and moved it right where good quick hands got the ball to second row Alfie Ambrose to crash over in the corner for the decisive score and a narrow 5-3 win.

It was a low scoring but tough game of rugby and Heath moved up the table and have games in hand.

This Sunday the Haywards Heath colts head to Pulborough in the Colts Sussex Cup.