Fantastic day for Eastbourne despite Storm Bert

Eastbourne welcomed London Cornish to a very wet and extremely windy Park Ave, as Storm Bert started to take hold of the south coast.

It was a well spirited game, with special mention to the referee who kept the game following nicely. Both sides played with real intensity and even with the horrendous weather, they both still tried to play with a bit of width to the attack and lots of offloads to keep the pace of the game high.

London Cornish attacked in the first half with the wind behind them and had plenty of possession as Eastbourne struggled to clear their lines, but a determined defence kept Cornish at bay, however eventually the line was breach and Cornish scored to lead 5-0.

This was the story of the half as Cornish attacked with the conditions and Eastbourne repelled them again and again. The home side started to build some phases towards the end of the half, as Cornish looked frustrated with the lack of points they had scored.

On the stroke of half time, Josh Buckwell powered over from short range after Eastbourne had hit Cornish hard for a period of time. Jake Howe kicked the conversion for the home side to lead at half time 7-5.

Eastbourne started strong and kicked well with the wind, to keep Cornish pinned down, after a lot of phases in the away sides 22, Eastbourne put the ball across the back line for Stuart Baker to scamper down the wing to score. Jake Howe Kicked a superb conversion from out wide.

Shortly after and another period of good attacking play, Eastbourne’s young number 8 Jack Curtis crossed for a good try and well deserved as he had another stella game in his first senior season.

It took Eastbourne 10 minutes more to score the 4th and bonus point try, when Konrad O’Neil scored a powerful running try and it was once again Kicked fantastically well from out wide by captain Jake Howe for his 3rd conversion to lead 26-5.

Eastbourne’s discipline went out of the window for the final 10 minutes and Cornish scored with the final play and kicked the conversion to take the final score to 26-12 in Eastbourne’s favour.

Man of the match was awarded to Leon wood for good control from scrum half. It could have easily gone to one of the back rows of Vince Morse, Jack Curtis or Owen Davies.

Eastbourne’s 2nd 15, the Nomads won away at Shoreham to return to the top of their league.

Given the injuries the squad has endured over the past few weeks, two league wins was a fantastic day for the club. The 1st team now have a week off with the Nomads travelling to Horsham.