Men’s 1st XV v Lewes 12/12/2009

Home – London 2 South East

Report by Andy Ward

Won 23-0

Christmas lunch was served today and the wine was flowing on Lord Fisher of the Albion’s table and so my memory is not all it could be this morning.

Still, here goes. Well, the match facts tell their own story in that it was a very close first half and a less close second half as Hove pulled away from a gritty and determined Lewes side who just seemed to falter more as the minutes passed by. Fitness? Possibly.

First blood was to Hove in the third minute with a penalty from home grown talent Ben for a transgression by Lewes towards the SE corner of the pitch. We weren’t to know it at the time but that was 50% of the first half points that we had just witnessed – the accompanying penalty joining the foray in the 36th minute.

So, not much to trouble match sponsor and chief button pusher Statto (Hove boy) who no doubt felt a little under used at this point. But that wasn’t the full story of the half as there were missed chances by both teams. A penalty chance each was missed at about half way through the half and there were openings for the backs of both teams to push forward but defences held tight. Some wayward handling was quite possibly a contributory factor as well.So, Hove got to half time with the slenderest of leads and local lad Ben kicked the proceedings off for the next 40 minutes competition. In a spooky reprise of the first half, Lewes again transgressed and a penalty was slotted to make it 9-0. Was that going to be it for the next 30 minutes and heading to a 12-0 finish? Well, thankfully no.

A further penalty miss happened in the sixth minute of the second half but Hove started to turn on the pressure some more and the scrum was now starting to shove Lewes around at will. Despite Paul’s absence for his knee operation, the combined forces of Stoffel and Bevan at prop and young Rory in the middle with Jamie and Liam completing the tight five in an all Hove minis sourced front five (just for Derek!) were commanding the scrums and Lewes were not able to present much answer to this.

In the 13th minute of the second half, the scrum was put to good use and powered forward leaving the Lewes pack running backwards. Scrum half Matt Sole (another Hove boy!) picked the ball up at the base and cantered round the powering pack to touch down for the first five pointer of the game.

Hove boy, Ben Coulson then stepped up to the mark and the conversion was true for the additional two point bonus. So a lead had now opened up and Lewes were showing little signs of breaking a Hove defence despite some good efforts.

Another 8 minutes into the game when Hove were having their best period and a cross field kick by Ben “Hove” Coulson was picked up by Ryan “Local Boy” Morlen, who combined well with Ben “Mr Hove” Ward in a medley of passes the final one going to Ryan for Hove’s second try of the game. It is really good to see all this home grown talent thwarting the local rivals!

The kick from Ben “lives just up the road” Coulson was good and the score nudged along to 23-0 where it was to stay for the remainder of the game. Lewes gave it their all but were not able to get any points against the well organised and powerful locally bred Hove defence.And so the final whistle came from the referee and time to open the strongbox to take out the money for the four jugs that is sole reward for the locally recruited talent on show. Was that a Securicor van I saw with Derek?

All joking aside, it was good to see so many of the people from Lewes who have always been good value for a drink and a laugh. Kenny, Graham, Derek, Steve – didn’t see Peter – I hope he had a letter from his Mum – and all thanks to them and the Lewes team for a great day’s entertainment all played in an excellent spirit and credit to both teams and Clubs.

Other results went pretty much as expected and the league table looks positionally unchanged. Next week’s opponents Sevenoaks are still third just three points behind after thumping OD’s 48-3 away yesterday. So, we will need to be on our guard next week and remember our slip up last year! Nothing short of a win will suffice and we will need to work very hard to get it.We then have our Christmas break and return in the New Year with a home fixture against fourth place Warlingham and again, nothing less than a win will do if we are to compete for promotion this year.

I am away next week in France taking a mini tour of Bayonne Vs Wasps, Montauban Vs Newcastle, Toulouse Vs Cardiff and Perpignan Vs Munster over four consecutive days and so you will have a different correspondent. However, I will be on the phone for regular updates and wish every success.

So, because of my sojourn, I need to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and New Year as this will be my last posting until the Warlingham game.