Eastbourne avenge defeat with win over East Grinstead
Eastbourne travelled to East Grinstead last Saturday and came away with a pleasing 15-14 win in Counties 1 Surrey/Sussex.
East Grinstead are fighting for every point to avoid relegation and Eastbourne are trying to finish higher than sixth – the position they finished last season.
As always it was a fierce encounter, with this one being played in good spirits with a very large crowd, but with no quarter given.
East Grinstead have a knack of stifling Eastbourne’s fast pace attack and in the first half this was again the case, with East Grinstead probably getting the rub of the green but also forcing Eastbourne in to plenty of errors.
Following some good forward pressure, Eastbourne scored on the 28th minute through MoM Leon Wood, who dived over from short range. Captain Jake Howe kicked the conversion – 7-0.
It took only five minutes for the home side to get into Eastbourne’s half and get a score back followed by a conversion to level things up at half-time.
The second half was quite error strewn and lacked flow. East Grinstead appeared to get on the wrong side of the referee as the half went on and were regularly punished for it.
Against the run of play East Grinstead scored and converted to lead 14-7.
Following a lot of possession without result, Eastbourne eventually forced a penalty and Howe kicked it to get the away side within four points with 10 minutes left.
Eastbourne then had a lot of the ball for the final 10 minutes and eventually Stuart Baker crossed for Eastbourne.
After a superb crossed field kick in to the try zone, Baker outstripped the defence to get a clear hand to the ball first and put Eastbourne in front. With only a few minutes left, Howe used the whole minute to make his conversion, only for a frustrated East Grinstead to start the charge down early, which allowed Howe to take another whole minute off the clock.
From the restart, Eastbourne kept possession and forced a penalty, which they kicked to the corner, ran the clock down and kicked it out to take a very pleasing away win. 15-14 and avenge the defeat at Eastbourne earlier in the season.
This Saturday Eastbourne host Cobham with a 2pm kick-off. Cobham are the best side Eastbourne have played and the home side will need to bring all their talents to get a result, which knowing the personnel they certainly will try to do.
In other news, Eastbourne twos, the Nomads, destroyed Burgess Hill ones for the second time this season to remain top of their league.
Eastbourne thirds came up short, but there are plenty of people playing rugby for a great club going in the right direction.
It’s a great example of a grass-roots rugby club doing a lot right.