Eastbourne 3rds Golds v Crawley 3rds Friendly 24.3.07 Lost 0-8

It was a dull day in Crawley where Eastbourne 3rds Golds performance did nothing much to warm up the cold temperature as they lost 8-0 to Crawley 3rds. In their defence, they very disappointingly had a significant number of absentees that meant fielding an irregular fifteen, particularly in the pack, with no substitutes. However all this cannot disguise probably their worst effort this season in terms of commitment and enterprise. Crawley were frankly no better, and any other day would have been easily beatable. The forgettable, score-free first half saw neither team produce much either individually or in concert. Aaron Standing’s tactical kicking, Matt Gordon’s lineout handling, and MoM Jamie Keen’s work rate, all three of which carried on into the second half, were the only highlights. Apart from Kevin Simms’ and Ben Corbishley’s solo efforts, tackling was poor, and Crawley in attack looked threatening if only by default. The second half was possibly livelier. But when Crawley got their try after 15 minutes, Eastbourne’s normal response this season never materialised, and only once did they come close to scoring before the final whistle.

Squad – Bridger, Brown, Corbishley, di Lieto, Gordon, Hodgson, Keely, J Keen snr, J Keen jnr, Martin, Newman, Sanders, Simms, Standing, Watts.