Eastbourne grind out a win

The Blue & Golds recorded a victory at Park Avenue on Saturday against local rivals Brighton, but it was an underwhelming performance particularly in the second half. This Eastbourne side have now won 5 consecutive matches and remain on top of the Sussex Spitfire league; despite this the coaching team will need to work hard before the next game at Seaford. In particular, the huge penalty count against the home side which reached an unacceptable level and which should have given Brighton a better score line than they managed.

The game had started so brightly; the weather had cleared and the noisy crowd roared Eastbourne into an initial lead. Having dominated the opening exchanges, scrum-half Pysden dummied in midfield; fly half McKay passed quick ball inside to Steve Clark who powered over in the corner. Coulthard`s wonderful conversion gave Eastbourne an early cushion and although Brighton responded with a 3-pointer from a penalty, it was home side pressure all the way. This pattern continued right up to the half time whistle. On twenty minutes, a forward drive with ball in hand rolled across the line and the last player up was the popular returning lock Gavin Farley to claim a deserved try. Coulthard`s conversion so nearly added the extras but just shaved the posts.

By this time, two features of the Eastbourne game were evident. Firstly the strength of the defence; not only the tackles made but also the supporting line to snuff out any indication of a Brighton attack. Secondly kicking from hand particularly by fly half McKay whose long range boot found some distance to touch. On a less positive note however, Brighton dominated too much line-out; penalties rained down upon Eastbourne and the scrum began to creak

On 35 minutes the influential centre Clark was forced off with a leg injury to be replaced by the mercurial Max Cheater. Within seconds of the switch, Brighton conceded a scrum in their own 10 metre area and Tom Redman crashed over to give a comfortable 17-3 lead at the interval

What happened in the second half is perhaps best left unreported. Frustration set in and Brighton certainly had the better of the 40 minutes. Somehow neither side managed to add any further points to the scoreboard in that period. To their credit, the home players tackled themselves to the point of exhaustion and even managed to regroup and dominate the final few minutes of the game. But work will be needed if the winning streak is to continue; coach Russell Aitkenhead will draw some comfort from the huge defensive effort but will be looking for a better all-round show in the coming weeks

Eastbourne: Imich, Shuttleworth, Keen, Mottram, Farley, Redman, Van bentham, Cousins, Pysden, McKay, King, Clark, Tennant, Smith, Coulthard, Cheater, Goldsmith

Man of the match; Gavin Farley for solid second row graft