Crawley (0)5 Hastings & Bexhill (20)41

H&B U13 travelled to Crawley with a squad of 17 looking to start the New Year with a victory over their West Sussex hosts. On cloudless morning, sunlight softening the frosty crust to the pitch, H&B received the kick off and moved the ball into the Crawley half through series of forward drives. A knock-on by the hosts lead to a scrum on the 22m line, with No. 8 Tommy Gooch picking up from the back and driving to the line for the first score after 5 minutes. From the restart to ball bounced into the hands of Flanker Ryan Southgate who surged through the opposition forward line down the right hand side for a 50m run before being driven into touch on the 5m line. H&B remained dominant in the forward play moving the ball in field and out to the left, working off a maul Winger Joe Whitehill-James ripped out the ball and fed onto Gooch to score in the corner. Gooch then returned the Crawley restart with mazy run back into the hosts 22m area, from the maul the ball was passed out through the centres first right to Henry Hill then left with Matt Coyle & Whitehill-James again making ground feeding the ball to Flanker George Upton who finished a stunning passage of play by breaking the defensive line to run round under the posts for a third try after 20 minutes. H&B were soon back in the Crawley half with Upton and Gooch combining well. A quick tap penalty by Scrum Half Joe Nicholls allowed Gooch to drive over from 20m for his hat-trick and take the score to 0-20 at half time.

The second half continued in the same vein with the forwards dominating the scrum and driving Crawley back at every opportunity and providing plenty of ball for Fly Half Alex Mortimer-Harvey to distribute.  H&B used quick ball from a line-out 15m out the spread the ball out to Coyle in the centre who took an inside step to make a break to score just to the left of the posts after 28 minutes. Upton converted.  

Upton again returned the restart with a strong run back into the Crawley 22m, the hosts conceding another penalty for going over the top at the ruck, quick hands out to the left leaves H&B just short and driven into touch 5m out. From the line-out Second Row Charlie Stockdale drives in to set a maul in midfield from which Upton breaks off to score his second try after 34 minutes which he converts.  A fine individual run by the Crawley centre finally sees them break out of their half, a last ditch covering tackle by Coyle dives him to touch on the left. A good throw from Hooker Spenser Smart allows H&B to take fast ball from the line-out along the backs to allow Coyle to out flank the defence for his second try which Upton converts. Two minutes later, failure to commit to a ruck allows the Crawley flyhalf to break from his own 22m to run the length of the field to score a consolation try. This proved to be the last play of the game. Final score 5-41

H&B U13 can be very proud of this performance in which they dominated their larger opponents in nearly every facet of the game. The forward effort from the front five provided plenty of ball for the back row and back line to run riot. With a little more commitment to good body position and drive at the break down and better timed passes to make use of support runners the team could have scored a couple of additional tries which their play fully deserved.

The team are back in league action next Sunday with a home game against title challengers Uckfield, it looks to be a close call should the lads put in a similar performance.

Man of the Match went to Matt Coyle for his all round display both in attack and defence.

Next game Sunday 15th January away versus Crawley (KO 11am)

Squad: Marchant-Hall, Smart, Brereton (Ames), Squire, Stockdale, Upton, Southgate, Gooch, Nicholls (Grain), Coyle, Hill, Whitehill-James, Grain (MacLean), Scott
Tries: Gooch (3), Upton (2), Coyle (2)
Cons: Upton (3)