Hastings and Bexhill ll 41 Maidstone 4ths 12

Haywards Heath forfeited the league game against H&B so a friendly was arranged against Maidstone.

Right from the start Hastings applied pressure at the set pieces with Alex Waring exceptional in the lineout. Only 5 mins in Maidstone conceded a penalty on the 22 which Peter Eames converted for an early lead.

 Hastings gathered the restart and  moved up the field with some exceptional  off-loading amongst the forwards, when the ball came out to the backs quick hands created an overlap on the right for winger George Riley to score his debut try in the corner, Eames narrowly missing the conversion to make the score 8-0.

Centre Ben Arnold was next on the score sheet from a well worked backs miss move and Eames added the extra for 15-0 lead.

Hastings by this time were playing very fast, heads up rugby ,which to their credit Maidstone defended well against ,but eventually they conceded a penalty which Robbie Simmonds took quickly and touched down to the right of the posts, converted by Eames 21-0.

It was looking like an easy day for Hastings but as you would expect from one of Kents leading clubs there competitive instinct took over and a well worked backs move sent their winger over in the corner for their 1st score. 21-5.

Hastings came straight back as once again quick ball found its way to Will Howard-Smith who sprinted over in the left corner for the last score of the half ,Eames missing the conversion to leave the score at the break 26-5 to Hastings.
 
Ben Woolcott came on for O’Riley and Bob Meager for Williams in the front row.

The 2nd half started slowly for Hastings with Maidstone applying pressure from the start, good breaks by their large prop supported by a very powerful no 5 resulted in an early score which they converted to make the score 26-12.

Scrum half Berwick Smith went off with a hamstring problem so Eames went to 9 with Arnold replacing him at 10 and O’ Riley coming back on the wing. Skipper Pete Mahonney also went off to be replaced by Williams.

Hastings soon put the early opposition score behind them as the forwards moved three quarterss of the way up the field with a great rolling maul that was finished off by Simmonds breaking off the back and touching down under the posts, converted by Eames, 33-12

In the last 10 minutes all the pressure came from Hastings with Aidy Mahonney breaking the gain line on numerous occasions ably supported by Alex Nicholls playing 6 instead of his normal 15 and the evergreen Simmonds.

With a few minutes remaining  Aidy Mahoney was tackled 10 metres out after a barrelling run and from the resulting ruck, Eames gave quick ball to Arnold who went in untouched and Eames added the final points of the game as the ref blew up almost immediately.

Skipper Pete Mahonney was pleased with the performance which was considerably better than last week and he gave the man of the match award to the back 3 of Nicholls, Simmonds and Aidy Mahoney.

Hastings resume their League program next week away at Hove .