Pulborough 35 Crawley 0: Reality sets in for Crawley Rugby Club

The scoreline does slightly flatter the home side, who made better use of the conditions than their visitors.

Crawley kicked off with the wind behind them in the first half, they could not make best use of the advantage, as an injury to fly half Alf Spurgeon, meant he could not kick effectively.

Crawley found themselves defending their line more often than they should.

Having said this, Pulborough could not score and were not allowed to settle as Crawley’s defence held strong with Turner, Gosling, Salle and Hewitt to the fore, and at half-time the score was 0-0.

The first score was going to be really important, and within minutes of the re-start, Pulborough had hoisted a high ball which was not cleared by the Crawley defenders and the home side strolled over for an easy try.

This was followed two minutes later as the confidence surged through the hosts for a score following another Crawley error.

The pattern continued for the first 25 minutes of the second half with Pulborough using the conditions and turning the screw on the visitors and eventually scoring five tries without reply.

During this time Crawley had to use all three of the allowed substitutes for injuries which also interrupted the flow and cohesion that had been evident in previous weeks.

With 15 minutes of the match remaining, determination seemed to return to the visitors, as they started to make dents in the Pulborough defence.

The strong running, absent in the earlier part of the match returned, and it took all the resolve of the home side to keep the visitors from scoring.

Crawley showed a number of changes from the previous week and with the injuries suffered on the day, were not able to compete with a side that was playing two divisions higher last season.

Crawley continue to make good use of the younger talent with Kieran Gosling outstanding in defence and the lineout, and Blaise Salle threatening in both defence and attack.

However if they are to compete at the higher end of this league need to keep their best players on the pitch at all times.