Hastings & Bexhill 36 Sevenoaks 5

Hastings & Bexhill 3rd XV travelled to Sevenoaks to play a game that had been postponed in January. It was a pleasant surprise to find a pitch that was green and firm after the all the recent "ploughed fields" that have been played on.

H&B turned up with 20 players, unfortunately 16 of them play as forwards and this resulted in an odd layout for the team as it took to the pitch.

Starting well they soon found themselves 7 points up as second row Andy Dalton, back playing with club after a couple of years away, picked from the back of a ruck eight metres out and, with a little help from hooker Joe Ward, went over the line. Peter Eames added the conversion.
 
This lifted H&B's spirits and they started to pile on pressure. Sevenoaks dug in and held the H&B pack at the Sevenoaks 22 for about 5 minutes before Scrum Half Peter Eames dummied a pass out and ducked inside the defence to make a run in to score, 12 – 0.

Sevenoaks came back strong but struggled to make ground. What followed was 10 minutes of centre pitch play with bodies being put on the line and tackles going in hard. Sevenoaks lost their number six during this time. H&B replacement David Ede-Morley offered to play for the Sevenoaks team and the offer being accepted. This was soon followed by H&B’s prop Duncan Dobson and their No8 Daniel Hewitt leaving the pitch injured to be replaced by Alan Verity and Alasdair Abercrombie-Barnett.

The enforced changes meant that the H&B backs offered up a new line of attack with stand in No10 Josh Whyte (first time in this spot) showing great promise in play making and drawing the opposition before releasing the rest of the back-line, mostly the faster forwards playing out of position.
 
Left Wing Jack Stevens took on the Sevenoaks No.4, stripping the ball from his arms and making 30 metres before passing the ball out of a tackle to Gary Baker who took the hit holding up the ball until the support arrived. A well worked rolling maul brought the ball to within 15 metres of the line. Quick ruck ball made another ten allowing Captain Matt Dawes to drive the last few yards for H&B’s 3rd try. Eames added the conversionto make 19 – 0.

Sevenoaks kicked off and with some great play from their No.10 found ground through kicking to touch, H&B’s line-out went wayward on them and they got pushed back deep into their own half. It took a little cool play from Alex Waring receiving the high ball to first call the mark and then set up his own kick and chase. Winning the foot race he forced the fumble and the ball was punted to the corner. H&B’s Gus Godden closing down the Sevenoaks player was unluckly not to collect the ball and a try. However it meant that they again had a scoring opportunity from the ensuing scrum. Eames took the chance scoring and then converting his own try.
 
Just before the half-time whistle eames had a kickable penalty only to see the ball hit the upright. H&B turned round with the score a creditable 26 - 0.

At the restart H&B prop Phil Thornburrow took a clean catch and then was reminded from the side line "FORWARDS DON’T KICK" immediately after he booted the ball deep into the Sevenoaks corner. It was in turn collected by their fullback and again put to boot, this time landing in the hands of Eames. He then showed what can be done if kicked well adding a drop goal about 35 metres out taking the score to 29 – 0.

Rather than relax with this score H&B seemd to tighten up and began to make mistakes with knock ons and forward passes. H&B seemed to be trying too hard and became frustrated and began to give away silly penalties. Sevenoaks capitalised on this well with quick takes and getting the extra 10 metres due to H&B not retreating fast enough. H&B spent some 20 minutes  defending their 22 metre line. This pressure showed and they eventually went over the line. Score 29 -5.

After a quick talking to about slowing down and enjoying the game and making the last two changes from the bench, Brian McNeilly and old timer Gordon Howard-Smith, H&B restarted and began to relax.

With 5 minutes to go the backs again switched the line of running and Matt Bumpus charged from ten metres out to score what would be the last try of the game. Eames added the conversion.
 
The dying minutes of the game where spent inside the Sevenoaks 22, The final whistle sounded with the score at 36 – 5 to Hastings & Bexhill.

The next league match will be Aylesford at home 6th March.