Eastbourne Under 14s 5 Haywards Heath Under 14s 5

Eastbourne RFC Under 14s played the second of their Sussex A League fixtures at home to Haywards Heath on 7 October. Little was known about the opposition as the two sides had never played a competitive fixture and expectations were dampened as Eastbourne went into the game without key players due to illness and injury.

From the start, Eastbourne playing up-slope, dominated. Their smaller pack won a succession of clean ball and the Haywards Heath three quarters had their hands full repelling the organised Eastbourne backs. The only relief for the visitors came with long clearances from their fly half but in many instances these were ably fielded by fullback Daniel Woods who ran the ball straight back into attack. When Haywards Heath did try to run the ball they signalled the intention to feed their larger runners and the Eastbourne centres were able to snuff out any danger at source.
Eventually the pressure began to tell and scrum half Andrew Chapman made a break from the base of a ruck and when stopped was able to off-load in the tackle to winger Will Bettles who went over to score to put Eastbourne 5-0 up at half time.

Fears that Eastbourne may not have made enough of their first half dominance began to appear well founded when the visitors started to exert their own pressure and Eastbourne were rarely able to get out of their half despite the advantage of the slope. Constant defence began to take its toll on the home side and injuries to skipper James O’Donnell, Callum Dunk and Jason Kearns seriously hampered the home side’s cohesion. With only a couple of minutes remaining Haywards Heath span the ball out to the right and were able to score near the corner flag. With the conversion missed the match ended in a 5-5 draw.

The match was a great advertisement for the junior game and special mention should be made of winger Harry Wills who took advantage of a starting slot to play his best game to date in an Eastbourne shirt.

Anyone wishing to join this promising squad should speak to under 14s manager Paul Feist on 07971 579443.

Eastbourne Under 14s:
Forwards: Tom Strange, James O’Donnell, Piers Newman, Patrick Feist, Sam Barrett, Jordan Smith, Dan Bevan, Chris Hibberd, Lewis Andrews, Jason Kearns
Backs: Andrew Chapman, Tom Biltliffe, Ben Saunders, Callum Dunk, Will Bettles, Harry Wills, Daniel Woods, Philip Stone, Scott Backler