Eastbourne 1st 11 V Old Ruts 1st 10

Eastbourne welcomed Old Ruts from West London to an extremely wet and windy Park avenue last Saturday. The visitors currently were sitting top of the league undefeated, which presented the new look and young Eastbourne squad with a real test. They have been so close to wins this season but couldn’t quite finish it off, with only 1 win in 4 on record, but are collecting bonus points.

Eastbourne had prepared very well in the week with two very focused sessions and they executed the plan superbly well. Fly half Aaron Hossack was away on Beavers duty, which meant Leon Wood moved to 10 and that gave Eastbourne the chance to have the father and son combo of Jerry and Cohen Montes at 8 and 9.

Eastbourne played into the conditions first half and carried extremely hard and scrummaged extremely well in very tough conditions, the backs defended and added carries where they could, but this was very much a forward battle. It would be wrong to single anybody out in particular as a standout. But the leadership, aggression and energy, along with a calm head shown by Captain Owen Davies was the difference between the sides today. Particularly in the first half.

Eastbourne kept the away side to 10 points whilst adding a penalty at the stroke of half time. This was a telling penalty.

Eastbourne forced a couple of yellow cards and the Referee was clearly frustrated with old Ruts behaviour, which at times was pretty poor. However they did defend excellently and carried hard as well, playing with a bit more width than Eastbourne did. The home side scored through some relentless carrying and eventually Cam Burleigh crossed with 10 minute to go but Wood missed the conversion.  Eastbourne trailed 8-10 and after some serious pressure forced a penalty and Wood redeemed himself with an excellent penalty kick on the stroke of full time to win by a point, 11-10.

Eastbourne did deserve the win and given the last few weeks, deserved to be smiling long into the night. The next test comes away to Haywards Heath. Lets hope the young squad can build on this week.

Man of the match was awarded to Jerry Montes for his continuous carrying in attack.