Colts rugby: Ho, ho, Hove win makes it a merry Christmas for Chi

Chichester colts showed the seniors there is talent coming through with another great league win versus league champions Hove – following a solid 23-0 win at Crawley in the Sussex Cup.

The Blues took on Hove with a couple of key players missing from their back line. Director of rugby Paul Colley shuffled his resources bringing in 16s scrum-half Josh Goodwin and moving skipper Joe Stirrup to the No12 slot.

Both played well with Stirrup putting some trademark thumping tackles in to thwart a dangerous Hove backline.

Chi got out of blocks well and Grace bossed the backline well and after several good phases Chi had an attacking lineout ten metres out.

The lineout functioned well with Marco Pauletti on the end of a well-worked move to open the scoring. Open-side flanker Tom Adlington calmly slotted the extras from the touchline.

Will Prior and Jack Rugman set a solid scrum platform and both carried hard to give Chi impetus and Stirrup used his excellent passing skills to release the reinvigorated Patterson to sear over for a second try.

Hove responded strongly and the left wing had the pace to run in from 4 m out. The Blues scored another well-worked try but Hove pulled another try back through sloppy tackling and lack of communication in the wide channels.

After the break, the defence improved as Constable and Adlington swarmed the tackle zone and Stirrup pulverised any Hove players coming down the middle.

The Blues attack sprang into life with the same two back-row men carrying hard. Constable hit some great lines forcing Hove to turn and Adlington was invariably first to the breakdown.

Within 15 minutes Chi had notched two more tries with big James Fitzmaurice showing deceptive pace for one.

Hove again rallied to score but Chi showed their quality as they kicked on for two more tries with skipper Stirrup capping an excellent game with a ghosting run between the posts.

The game ended with a scruffy drop goal from Grace to round off a thoroughly entertaining win. Men of the match were Constable and Adlington.

The Blues have a national colts cup game this Sunday – all support welcome

CHI COLTS: Prior, Pauletti, Rugman, Watmore, Fitzmaurice, Scott, Adlington, Constable, Goodwin, Grace, Seehawong, Stirrup, Patterson, Spreckley, Gallimore, Delacy, Munroe, Brereton, Crosby-Wilshire, Moses, Eppi, Ellis.

Bognor under-13s beat Guernsey 57-5 in their first league home match but last game of the year.

Early on Ewan Harrington received the ball on the wing and with an extreme turn of pace, he was in at the corner for a try. Theo Benyon-Ayres struggled to convert from the angle but Bognor were 5-0 up.

Guernsey received the ball from the restart and Blaze Vile scored the try, from which the conversion was also missed.

Bognor lost a scrum but scrum-half Ollie Page’s quick thinking and footwork saw him take the ball from his Guernsey counterpart to go over between the posts, added to be an easy conversion by Benyon-Ayres.

Helped by the huge home crowd Bognor showed a great display of teamwork and distribution through their No10 Ben Woolnough and great strength and power from centres Ethan Teasdale and Woody Gilbert-Jones.

Open-side flanker Owen Thomas was next over the line with a display of powerful running through Guernsey that had shades of his father Morgan and grandfather Leighton. Benyon-Ayres’ conversion made it 19-5.

Harrington scored again for Bognor with an offload from Finn Glass and an easy conversion put Bognor 26-5 up.

Dylan Giles fought hard but missed a couple of opportunities.

After the restart captain and No8 Elvis Millen picked the ball from the back of the scrum and scored from 15 yards resulting from the Guernsey knock on. He converted his own try.

Millen then set up Gilbert-Jones, allowing him to step over the line for Bognor’s sixth try. Millen’s conversion made it 40-5.

Harry Lindsey took the ball through heavy traffic to pop the ball to flanker Thomas for another try.

Great phases of play through the backs, slick hands and footwork of winger Lindsey saw the ball go to Woolnough and then Millen, who took on three opponents to score his last of the day, which he also converted.

There was just time for Thomas to go over again for his hat-trick.

MoM for Bognor was Millen.

BOGNOR: Davies, Weller, Russ, Glass, Giles,Trenham,Thomas, Millen, Page, Woolnough, Lindsey, Teasdale, Billingham, Arbuckle, Gilbert-Jones, Benyon-Ayres, Booth, Harrington, Clegg, Chitty, Collins, Kearns.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking sports news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make this website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Sport-Sussex

3 Follow us on Twitter @SportSussex

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

Share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!