East Grinstead 69 Hastings & Bexhill 0
H&B rocked back on heels by hosts
AFTER last week’s first league win, Hastings & Bexhill’s roller-coaster season continued with its worst defeat, at one of London Three’s title contenders East Grinstead.
Sorely missing the composure of the injured Claughton brothers, and with most of the club’s specialist props unavailable, H&B looked a nervous shadow of the side that had dominated Old Gravesendians the previous week.
EG’s big, mobile pack were too good for H&B in the loose, and once prop Ilian Granville had left the field with back problems just 20 minutes into the game, took control in the set scrum too.
Their exceptional back three gave H&B’s game but youthful halfbacks a torrid time all afternoon, disrupting ball to the backline, where only the irrepressible Ben Campbell and pacey Murray Whittington managed to break the defence a few times - and that from broken play.
Only in the lineout - this season’s success story - did H&B have some measure of success, thanks as usual to Ben Davies’ accurate throwing-in and Jimmy Adams’ gymnastic catching. It was these two and the dynamic Paul Sandeman who also did the most eye-catching work carrying the ball and making the big tackles.
The game began fairly well for H&B, who held out their hosts’ dangerous backline quite comfortably for the first quarter, and though mostly confined to their own half, repeatedly turned over EG ball. The centre partnership of Ashley Diedericks and Richard Brooks looked to be developing well, and with EG’s handling and decision-making at this stage looking flawed, there seemed reason to hope if not for a win then at least for a competitive encounter - a hope bolstered when Campbell snaffled up a loose ball in his own 22 and made a powerful break past the defence down the touchline, cleverly cutting infield to await support close to EG’s line - which alas arrived too late.
That proved to be the high-point of H&B’s afternoon, and the peak of its ambition.
A well-worked try on 22 minutes, courtesy of a couple of missed tackles in midfield, gave EGs a seven point lead. Three minutes later H&B’s fumbled fielding of EG’s kick to the corner was turned into a second try by the hosts’ good chase, again converted by their excellent goal-kicker.
And while H&B spent a short time in EG’s half their attacks never looked confident, and for the rest of the first period it was a case of desperate scramble defence and slugging it out upfront for H&B. Both sides were still turning over the ball, and H&B were giving away their usual penalties at the breakdown, but even at this scrappy stage of the game there looked to be only one winner. Two more predictable tries, slowed down by some big tackles but let in by other tackles missed, took the half-time score to 24-0.
H&B made a brave effort at the start of the second half, attacking EG’s tryline until a penalty allowed EGs to show their pace and skill for a length of the field counter-attack that pushed the score to 31-0.
A somewhat harsh penalty try for a collapsed scrum followed, and then in the last quarter the floodgates inevitably opened, as H&B’s disheartened, less experienced and less powerful 15 wearily fell off tackles and turned over possession to allow EGs athletic forwards and adventurous backline to display their quality.
Disappointing as the performance was compared to the previous weeks, this game was never realistically winnable for H&B, who tomorrow (Saturday) face another mountain, league leaders Heathfield, who play a very different, more direct game.
If they can keep their heads up and their enthusiasm alive, it is in the early weeks of the New Year that H&B can target wins that could keep them in London Three next season.
H&B: Roche, Davies, Granville (Williams), Clifford, Adams, Cullingford (Umpleby), Sandeman, Piotrowski, Stedman, Hollingsworth (Lee), Campbell, Diedericks, Brooks, Whittington, Brampton.
