Holbrook’s losing streak extended

Alex Meredith ran in three tries but the Horsham-based team failed to gel in their 41-22 Sussex 1 defeat to Midhurst on Saturday.

From the Kick off Midhurst hit their visitors with 17 quick points to which a Meredith try and conversion was the only Holbrook response.

Struggling to gain their composure and any continuity, Holbrook had to defend for long periods as Midhurst pressed. However, poor Holbrook defence eventually led to two more tries for the home side, which brought the half time score to 27-7.

Stern words at the break injected some belief and determination and young prop Connor Pascoe bagged a try early in the second half, which was followed-up by a quickfire double from Meredith which reduced the lead to just five points.

With strong individual performances from Dave Thomas, George Heron and Dave Browning added to the efforts of Pascoe and Meredith, Holbrook had recovered well and looking strong.

However, as in other recent games, they failed to apply basic tactical nous and suffered from trying to play too much rugby in their own half. Sloppy kicks and failure to retain possession allowed Midhurst to sprint in for two more tries and to leave Holbrook frustrated and forlorn as yet another unnecessary defeat was recorded.

Skipper Paul Davey said: “This was a game that we should have won and our team performance was a huge disappointment, however, individually we played well and I still feel that with little fine tuning and applying ourselves better tactically we can win our remaining matches. This is a good squad and just needs to regain its confidence.”