Rye V Holbrook Nov 2011

With yet another extrememly long journey this time to the far outposts of Sussex Rugby at Rye Holbrook had another chance to give players a chance to show what they could do at a highher level, with several enforced changes necessary. Unsuprisingly the first half was difficult as a committed Rye side did not allow Holbrook to settle and the half was a hard slog with little reward for Holbrook.

With Steyne Van de Mewre again performing well at the line outs and hooker Graeham Farmer hitting his man well Holbrook did win plenty of good ball all day long and with a more mobile pack showed glimpses of promise in the first half which then were converted into real chances in the second. An excellent line break by centre Nick Holt nearly opened the scoring, however, as he was tackled just a yard from the line the ball was released to Lee Taylor to open the scoring. Soos after a 5 meter scrum saw Dan Vander release Alex Meredith for the second try.

Poor kicking by Holbrook allowed rye to counter attack too often, coupled with a series of unforced errors Holbrook failed to add to their tally until Rich Brooker scored after collecting his own kick ahead and very lucky bounce of the ball. Continued errors though did allow Rye in for a converted try.

In the second half, a firm team talk by Coach Steve Heaton had holbrook looking much improved and responding with a faster more disciplined performance. With Andy Etheringn at centre growing in importance as his forceful breaks breaks began to tell. However, it was to be a break from his own 22 by Ben Wells which allowed Holt to sprint most of the pitch to set up a ruck from which Dan Vander showed his ball skills to score.

Further fine breaks beagn to add to Holbrooks performance, alas too often these were not finished off with scores. Finally another fine sequence of play resulted in Tom Bouet scoring the final try for Holbrook following great work by James Brown and Steyne. 2 penalties by Alex Meredith added to his 2 conversions completed the Holbrook scoring. with seconds to go and Holbrook attacking in the Rye half an alert Rye side, who never give up, surprised a sleeping Holbrook side and ran a try in from 50meters to end the game. Rye 15 Holbrook 35.

Skipper Mark Devlin was delighted with the result and particularily the second half performance. " We played a lot of good rugby and whilst we did not always make the best use of our chances, we are starting to create a lot more and with each game we are getting a better return for our efforts. It is never easy at rye, a long journey and a committed side who never give up, yet I thought that we managed it better today than we have in previous years. It was also good to be able to play some less regular players in the team, this will prove beneficial later in the season as it helps to build our strength and give us a wider base to select from, players who could not play both last week and this will have to work harder in training after this performance".