Eastbourne 1st XV vs. Midhurst

In this game, Eastbourne came up against a big bruising Midhurst pack and some quick silver backs who asked questions of the home side throughout the game. To their credit however, the Eastbourne forwards refused to be intimidated and by the end of the match, were completely dominant. Aikenhead and Tennant continued to build their half back pairing and James Coulthard was solid as ever at full back.

Eastbourne suffered an early loss when captain Tobin departed after only 5 minutes, being replaced by James Gietzen with Redman reverting to flanker. Midhurst pressed hard for 15 minutes and then began to labour; even then two penalties kicked by Adam Tennant were the only reward for Eastbourne as the half time whistle approached. But a fine piece of work by Luke Sage put Tennant into space on the stroke of 40 minutes; the fly half ran a clever angle to deceive the defence and Jon Oakey found himself in space to cross in the corner.

If turning round 11-0 down flattered Midhurst, then Eastbourne should have capitalised in the second half. With slope and crowd in their favour, they dominated possession to the extent that Midhurst were only able to break out into home territory once in the 3rd quarter. They duly had their reward with a 3 point penalty following an offside decision at the breakdown; the rest of the half belonged to Eastbourne but untidy possession let them down more than once and a narrow win looked likely. Then on 25 minutes another break by Tennant put Sage away in space down the left; he needed no second chance and was able to touch down under the posts for a converted try. And following further stoppages for injury, Tennant was able to score for himself with 5 minutes remaining. Although the fourth try would have given the bonus point, it was not to be and Eastbourne were left to rue a missed opportunity for a bigger win.

Eastbourne
Barron, Oakey, Webb, Mottram, Chilvers, Tobin, Turner, Hancock, Aikenhead, Tennant, Clark, Cousins, Redman, Sage, Coulthard

Subs all used: Edwins, Imich, Gietzen

MoM - Russell Aikenhead for a workmanlike performance over full 80 minutes.