Hastings & Bexhill 2nd XV 6 Hellingly 12

Hastings and Bexhill 2nd XV opened their league campaign with a home match against Hellingly with a strong squad based on experience and youth. Most of the experience was in the forwards with key roles being played by Adam Williams, Pete Mahoney and Robbie Simmons and youth in the backs with new players Will Howard-Smith and Calvin Coapes-Clarke both making their home debut. Clearly the team was apprehensive given the previous weeks performance and the loss of the University students James Morris and Chris Stern but despite all of this the H&B team started the game well.

Skipper Pete Mahoney had asked the players for increased commitment and a pattern of play that revolved around good set piece and ruck ball and this was the way that the team started the first 20 minutes with key phases from penetrating forward drives by Andy Dalton, Mike Clifford and Robbie Simmons, well presented ruck ball for distribution by scrum half Berwick Smith and backs running at pace at the opposition. As a result H&B battered the Hellingly defence for 20 minutes, mostly from within the Hellingly 22 metre area but were held up a number of occasions close to the line or gave away penalties in the ensuing ruck.

Hellingly defence was solid and only cracked when they gave away a penalty near the posts 22 minutes into the game. Unfortunately H&B took a quick tap to try to exploit the wings but Hellingly scrambled their defence tackling winger Calvin Coapes-Clarke near the line.

After 25 minutes and more attacks deep into the Hellingly 22 metre area H&B were turned over in the tackle and the Hellingly back line capitalised running from their own 22 to score in the far corner. Hellingly failed with the conversion and this was the pattern for the rest of the game with H&B running hard into the tackles of the Hellingly defensive line only for Hellingly to counter-attack with three quarters who wanted the ball and gave H&B a few tense moments as they danced through tackles or moved the ball at speed to the wings.

At half time two changes were made with Ryan Madigan back after a season off being replaced by Dom Sewell , available for his last game before going to University, and Berwick Smith going off with an injury. There was a need for a shuffle in the backs with Tom Constable moving to full back and Tom Waring to stand off.

H&B started the second half a little unsettled due to the changes in personnel with new players not yet comfortable with the planned moves but still performing well. Hellingly had decided not to play H&B's forward game and for the first 20 minutes of the half released their backs making ground with good support from their forwards. After one such attack they confused the referee by with the number 10 using a large second row forward as a blocker preventing the covering defence to tackle the ball carrier and they scored under the posts to lead 12 points to nil following the conversion.

H&B then suffered a further injury set back as Adam Williams, charging through the Hellingly defence, damaged his shoulder in contact having to be replaced by Andy Dalton and Alex Waring coming on in the back row and Pete Mahoney staying on the pitch and moving to second row despite a back strain.

H&B however started to rally and commitment was increased with attacks by John Joe Dawes and Andy Dalton being stopped near the line.

Percy Fitzgerald kicked two penalties to bring the score to 6 - 12 with five minutes left but time run out as H&B tired and injuries took their toll.

Coach Gary Walsh and skipper Pete Mahoney agreed this was a much better performance and the best team on the day lost the game however decisions on the pitch need to be the right ones to make the most of the possession and territorial advantages and players also need to raise their awareness of what is going on around them to exploit opportunities.