Eastbourne 1st team (32) v Haywards heath 1st team (10)

And proved to be exactly that. However, as with all their games so far, Eastbourne’s superior strength, speed and power paid off, to record their fifth straight bonus point win in the league and remain unbeaten this season.

The game started at real pace, with both sides looking to play fast and attack tight first then spread it wide - a great game for the large crowd. Eastbourne completely dominated the set piece and kept the Haywards Heath scrum and line out under real pressure. Haywards Heath got the first points of the game with a well kicked penalty. Shortly after, Eastbourne put them to the sword for the remainder of the half which saw Mason Dowle use his speed to finish off a good team try and Jeremy Montes score the first of his two tries in another powerful display from the big Frenchman. The half was capped off with a brilliant forwards try, they mauled Haywards Heath close to the try line, and a number of successful pick and go attempts were completed by the very popular tight head, Alun Cranch with his first ever try for the first team.

Captain Jake Howe narrowly missed the conversions, disappointing for Jake who normally kicks very well.

The next try came 10 minutes into the second half, which saw Harrison Gibbons take advantage of the dominant scrum and skip down the blind side to score in the corner and secure the bonus point for scoring four tries.

Three minutes later, Mason Dowle secured his second try with a brilliant run in, after multiple phases and a good break by fly half Aaron Hossack, to put away the fifth try which Howe converted.

Haywards Heath had a couple of purple patches after this, and Eastbourne held out for long periods until the home side eventually crossed to make the score 10-27 in Eastbourne’s favour. In the 74th minute, squad favourite Jeremy Montes scored his second try and powered over from 10 meters out. This capped off the game 10-32 to Eastbourne.

Montes had a superb game and the front five showed dominance all day and the game was well controlled by Hossack at 10. Great work rate, skills and lineout dominance saw the Man of the Match award go to Vincent ‘The Inspector’ Morse and Owen Davies who both played on the flanks.

Eastbourne travel to play third place Pulbrough on Saturday for a massive test. They will be desperate to secure a win to set up a big home clash the week after against their good friends, and league favourites, East Grinstead who are joint top of the league with Eastbourne on maximum points.

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