Hove 12 - 10 Old Alleynians

Hove vs. Old Alleynians (H)

Hove entertained the Dulwich based side looking for back to back victories for the first time this season. The pitch was boggy in places and a strong wind blew directly into one corner. With the Old Alleynians’ skipper winning the toss, he elected to play against the wind in the first half.

Rob Biggs kicked off; however, with the breeze at his back, misjudged the wind and the ball went dead. This gave Old Alleynians a good position in which to attack. The Hove eight, however had other ideas and put pressure on the Old Alleynians scrum, forcing them back, allowing Rob Biggs to tackle their 8 as he picked up the ball. From the break down, Old Alleynians, tried a chip over the top from a box kick, which was neatly collected by Sam Whiting at the back, who attacked down the wing in return.
From this Hove went through the phases and some good carries from Declan Peake, Luke Torres and Adrian Shergold got Hove into great field position. Phil Dugard then tried a grubber through, however, a penalty was given to Old Alleynians for Ryan Bhimji, being in front of the kicker.

Old Alleynians kicked to touch gaining good territory, finding themselves just inside of Hove's 10m line. They then had their first real attack and carried strongly through runners off their number 10. After sucking in numbers they tried to exploit the wider channels, however, Boyd Flavell and Ryan Bhimji, as they did all day, thwarted any half chances. Adrian Shergold then won the decisive turnover at the breakdown and Hove cleared their lines. Hove attacked wide from the resulting line out and Sam Bath found himself in a yard of space, however, the covering defence bundled him into touch. However, play was brought back to just inside the Old Alleynians half for a penalty, which Hove opted to kick for goal. Rob Biggs missed the kick, 50m out in front of the posts, with the ball going dead for a 22 dropout.

Old Alleynains successfully held onto possession, putting some good phases together, gaining momentum and territory up the park. Some poor first up tackles from hove and good interplay allowed them to get behind the Hove defensive line, Alex Maguire, however, tracked back superbly to make the covering tackle allowing Guy Patton to win the turnover. From the resulting lineout after the penalty, Phil Dugard found Sam Whiting who sent a long kick deep into Old Alleynians territory.

Hove had a frustrating afternoon at the line out with Old Alleynians doing well to get up and disrupt the Peake-Saunders-Henry axis. After Hove again dominated the scrum, a backs move straight off the training ground led to the first score. Boyd Flavell and Ryan Bhimji ran great dummy lines allowing Phil Dugald to find Guy Patton looping round, he in turn found Sam Whiting who straightened and drew the full back to put Sam Bath in the right hand corner. Conversion missed by Rob Biggs, however, Hove were first on the scoreboard 5-0.

With half time approaching, Hove attacked down the left hand side through Guy Patton. He ghosted past his man setting up a 2 on 1 with the opposition full back however with Sam Whiting on his shoulder, the defence were able to make the last ditch tackle, which was just on the right side of not being a penalty, for tackling the man without the ball. Hove therefore went into the break 5-0 up probably thinking they were 10 points shy with the wind at their backs.

Old Alleynians came out the blocks strongly and after a Rob Biggs box kick got caught in the wind and came back to him, Old Alleynians won the turnover. They were patient with their attack and after some lazy inside defence, went over 5m in from touch. Conversion missed and the scores were tied 5 apiece.

Earlier in the season, Hove would have gone into the shell having conceded so early after half time, however this seemed to galvanise the side. Sam Whiting managed to link up with Ryan Bhimji on the left touchline who found the workmanlike Guy Patton. He skinned his opposite man and then ‘shinned’ the ball over the full back and won the foot race. The bounce unfortunately eluded him and he unfortunately knocked on.

A nasty clash of heads between Ryan Bhimji and Hove stalwart James Finalson forced both places to leave the field forcing Luke Torres to play as a makeshift 12. A good break up the middle of the park by Boyd Flavell was halted 5m out. The ball was recycled quickly and Kip Wallace found himself on the wing. After bowling over one player, instead of putting his head down and going for the corner tried to bowl over another and was stopped 1m out. Rob Ward picked and went, however, was stopped agonisingly close. Old Alleynians then managed to make a mess of the ruck to turn the ball over and get a boot to the ball downfield; chance lost.
Hove were however next on the scoresheet. A loose kick was fielded by Phil Dugard on halfway who found Sam Whiting; his kick into space took a wicked bounce and sat up perfectly for him. After fending off the full back he had just enough toe to get over the line. Conversion successful by Rob Biggs and Hove led 12-5.

Old Alleynians were not going to lay down however and after sustained pressure on the Hove try line, their number 10 put a delightful grubber through for his winger to dot down. The conversion from out wide was unsuccessful however; 12-10.

A late Rob Biggs penalty held up in the wind and Old Alleynians had one last attack. A box kick was adjudged to of stayed in play much to the bemusement of Sam Whiting. Some good hands created the overlap in the corner, however the winger couldn’t hold on and the ball went over the touchline much to the joy of the Hove faithful.

With time running out, Declan Peake found Ian Saunders, at the front of the line out and the forwards drove on. After a second phase, the ball was declared unplayable and the final whistle went to the joy of all the Hove players.

A really gritty performance from Hove that all but secures their status in this league next year. Man of the Match as voted for by Old Alleynians was Sam Whiting.

Hove have a week break before travelling to unbeaten Tunbridge Wells.
Hove: McGuire, Peake, Shergold, Saunders, Torres, Ward, Henry, Robinson, Biggs, Dugard, Patton, Flavell, Bhimji, Bath(1), Whiting(1) (c) Subs. Wallace, Woolard, Finlason