Hove v Lewes Match Report

Hove 64 - Lewes 0

Another impressive performance whilst still not playing to our full potential

The game started with Hove fumbling the kick-off and spending some minutes in our own 22 defending a determined Lewes wave of attacks. However the defence held firm and after a quick delivery from a ruck on Hove's 10 metres the backs broke loose. Some slick interpassing resulted in a try. Lewes continued to pressure Hove in the first quarter but the defence continued to hold strong and the backs continued to break out and score tries. At half time the score was Hove 38 - Lewes 0

In the second half Ben Nash once again gave a master class of how to maul the ball from an aggressive oppositions attack. Unfortunately on several occasions when he broke loose the other forwards just seemed to stand and admire his handy work and let him run up the field alone and into trouble. Keep close to Ben when he breaks loose and more tries will come

Archie Houston had a stand out game. On several occasions his supporting runs resulted in tries. Always busy in the loose. Tyler continues to blast his way through defences and his efforts resulted in two tries. Ennio was back to his old form and aggressively jackling the opposition's ball on many occasions. Albeit sometimes illegally, according to the ref. The scrum functioned well with one strike against the head. However the front five need to stand firm at times once the ball has moved backwards. The back 3 need also to give more protection to the scrum half so that he doesn't have to dig the ball out under pressure. The line out was reasonable. Although none of the new moves seemed to be called but then I may have missed a few

Stephen continues to seem unstoppable when going forward at pace and scored another three tries. Although at one time his dancing feet just sent him from one Lewes tackler to another. The running lines between the outside half and three quarters continued to break the gain line and one slick move sent the fullback into space and allowed him to jog to the try line for a score.

All the bench got a game and played well. However the changes did disrupt Hove's momentum at times and the score rate in the second half slowed down. Although the scoreboard continued to tick over and the game ended in a 64-0 win for Hove.

Although the win was emphatic there were too many times when a player went into contact, tried to set up the ruck only for the opposition to come away with the ball. We must learn to be more protective of the ball in contact otherwise it will become expensive against a more capable opposition

Other try scorers were Harvey, Charlie, Dom and George (2)

Still things to work upon but the team spirit is high. Our next league game in 3 weeks time could be the league decider . So it is important that every player turns up at training until then to practice the set pieces and iron out the small errors that are still being made under pressure.

Good to see Piers make a guest appearance and he will be welcome anytime he can get back home. Also it was good to see Harry, Zach and Finlay turning up as spectators. We hope you recover fully soon from your injuries and are back with team