East Grinstead 45 Hastings & Bexhill  10

First game back from Christmas and with a few boys looking to have put on a pound or two over the break H&B could only muster 14 men, East Grinstead having a choice of 22. With a rearranged centre pair of Ollie Fisher and Toby McDonald, Archie (the salmon) Meikle back in the front row with Ben Cutts and Dominic Barker with no number 8 things were going to be hard.

H&B started slowly and soon found themselves 5 down then 10. The Pack saw strong tackling from Julius Higart, Jake Begg and Archie Meikle and Dominic Barker kept the scores down. While forward running from Harrison Cox, Jamie Lappin-Place and Ben Cutts kept up pressure on East Grinstead. Will (The tackle) Phelps was at his best with the strong defensive work helped out by Dave Waters on one wing and Telmo Trueller on the other. In the middle of the park Sam Wilson Paddy Pope Ollie Fisher and Toby McDonald kept the ball moving but were unable to break the East Grinstead defences. Half time found H&B 30 points down but not disheartened.

The second half brought a fight back from the H&B boys as Sam Wilson and Ollie Fisher swapped places .With H&B winning 95% of line out and the scrums going 50-50 it was just the overlaps causing H&B problems, not enough players on the park. The Backs working the ball soon found Telmo Trueller and Dave Water’s running wide almost bringing the break through on a couple of occasions .With 20 minutes to go H&B got their rewords as Fisher darted from scrum and over from 20 yards. This spurred H&B on and soon from great forward play Harrison Cox drove over after Jake Begg had been held up 6 inches short.

Final score 45-10