A win for Eastbourne Rugby Club's first team

Eastbourne 1st team hosted local rivals Hove in their second home fixture of the season, so far they had secured a maximum points win versus Haywards Heath and a losing bonus point on the road to league favourites Weybridge Vandals, Eastbourne were certainly unlucky not to get more out of that game and went into the Hove match full of confidence and welcomed back to the team, Vice-captain Vince Morse and centre Ronnie Dorrie-Palmer.

Eastbourne had the worst first half of rugby in terms of discipline and structure many of the coaches could remember, not to do Hove an injustice who were a large, experienced and well organised pack, with a dynamic midfield.

Eastbourne did not heed the referee’s warnings of how he would official the game and duly had 2 yellow cards and 10 penalties against in the first half, along with losing Paul smith to an injured calf early on and Ben Gower for a blood bin for a period of time.

Hove scored first through an uncharacteristic, missed tackle in the Eastbourne midfield, to lead 5-0 and there was no further excitement apart from what is previously mentioned until Jake Howe Kicked a penalty and Konrad Oneil scooped up the ball from a messy lineout and scored superbly in the corner, which was converted by Howe for the home side to somehow lead 10-5 at half time.

Following a stern talking too at the break, Eastbourne got their act together in the second half and started to play some decent attacking rugby and break Hove down, that was after Hove scored in the second minute of the half. Eastbourne then scored 4 try’s and kicked 3 conversions before Hove scored a consolation try at the very end of the game.

Eastbourne’s first try came via Dylan Viles on the left wing, the second through captain Howe who scooped up a pass rather well to score under the posts, then chased a speculative kick through down very well to gain a second and Leon Wood scored a good try and continued his good form, to redeem his earlier yellow card for being a gobby little oik.

Some impressive performances from the Eastbourne pack, with youngster Jack Curtis once again proving he is worthy of competing for a first team shirt, some good impact off the bench through youth and experience once again in the pack via Hoskins and Lester. But the Man of the match went to Ronnie Dorrie Palmer for an all-round solid display back at number 12, following injury a few weeks ago in a pre-season friendly.

Eastbourne 2s the nomads, also ran out comfortable winners over Horsham 3s to secure maximum bonus points 53 – 17.