Hastings & Bexhill 2nd XV 14 Tonbridge Juddians IV XV 46

Hastings and Bexhill 2nd XV faced their last warm up match against Tonbridge Juddians IV prior to the start of the League competition against Hellingly. The H&B squad also included a number of players returning to action after the summer break and first team squad players out to impress for selection to the 1st XV squad for its next game against Becchamians.

The game started well for H&B with Tom Waring at standoff providing speed and deception to break the Juddians line soon after the start of the game. After 10 minutes pressure the game reached a good standard of rugby despite the obvious various levels of fitness shown by the H&B players.

Percy Fitzgerald playing at nine kicked well after a penalty against Juddians for an infringement at the ruck and following a successful take at the line out by Rob Mcmanus and a drive by hooker Joe Umpleby allowed prop Andy Dalton to crash over under the posts to put H&B ahead. Percy Fitzgerald was successful with the conversion and things looked rosy for the home side.

Juddians however had other ideas and a series of penalties and free kicks allowed the speedy Juddians scrum half to make ground well supported by powerful runs from the their second rows and robust centres. Juddians then took control of the breakdown and managed to isolate H&B in the tackle and disrupt the line out stealing the ball and running in tries out wide after drawing in the H&B defence.

H&B made changes throughout the game trying different combinations to get the best out of the run out before the first league game but Juddians were too strong in defence despite a storming period after half time when attacks by Pete and Aidey Mahoney, Tristan Todd and Andy Dalton were held up on the line.

If H&B had been able to score during this period things may have been different but Juddians rallied and found space on the wings after darting runs by the half backs to run in more tries as H&B tired.

H&B did come back through a late try by Berwick Smith converted by Bruce Steadman.

Coach Gary Walsh and skipper Pete Mahoney both agreed that fitness needed to improve but were impressed by youngsters stepping into the senior squad and were confident that they had the correct players to get it right next week in the first competitive game of the season