Battle of Hastings?

Such an overused phrase this weekend with our visitors home town football team making headlines in the FA Cup, however our encounter with the tourists from Hastings and Bexhill, was no less dramatic, and was a great advert for our game…

Obviously the delights(sic) of Watford had played a major part in the state of the parents and coaches of our visitors who were nursing some major hangovers, as evidenced by the quiet coaching prior to the game, and some scared looks from parents on hearing that our bar was open…

Luckily for them their players had not spent the night in the bar drinking it dry, and looked ready for a match. Both sides had large squads available for the game, and what a game we had.

The early stages of the first half were characterised by Hastings playing clever rugby pinning our guys back in the depths of our 22 for a large proportion of it, with some last ditch defending from us keeping them at bay. Their pack was big and very mobile, and at the breakdowns, were hitting it hard, forcing us onto the back foot. However I think their aggression from the start woke our pack up to the fact that we weren’t going to have things our own way, and part way through the half we finally managed to work some phases of play together and started to impose ourselves somewhat.

Their No10 was particularly good, and dictated all of their play, with clever running and kicking from hand. Whilst we were not as efficient as normal, our starting 15 didn’t crack despite all the pressure, and in fact it was our first foray into their half which resulted in the opening score.

The move started from deep, with Ethan picking the ball up and making a huge break down the flank which allowed the pack to be on the front foot, and after a number of phases we managed to get to the line. Despite strong defence, once Harry got the ball 5 yards out not much short of a Norman arrow in the eye would have stopped him from barrelling over. With Alex playing at 10 (though from what I saw he spent most of his time playing at 8 or 9,) our conversion was always a certainty.

However as was to be repeated again during the game, the response was swift and definitive, Hastings went from the kick off down deep into our 22 and some great handling and support play saw them go over the line almost under the posts, their try was converted, and the rest of the first half was played out without further score, but not without huge effort and skill from both sides, who went at each other with gusto.

Half time came and both sides made a number of changes to personnel, and battle was re-joined. Given the number of changes made, what was pleasing was that the commitment, effort, and skill levels were maintained by both teams and the intensity never lessened at all.

What was different was that our pack now had the upper hand in set pieces, winning the majority of scrums and causing disruption in the line outs, whereas Hastings were maintaining their ability to hit the breakdown at speed and in numbers. Blows were traded with both sides punching holes in defences and it wasn’t long before Hastings broke our defence line to score a well worked try, and again their conversion sailed over the posts, from the look of the kicker he had been trained by John Eales, as the approach and style was of his ilk..

Yet again though an equalising try wasn’t far away and this time it was our backs that executed a well-worked move off the training ground, utilising a 3-man overlap to score! Okay maybe not lol, our forwards had worked a great position and the backs looked like that move was going to come off, however Moses decided that he wasn’t going to use the overlap but rather dance, spin, shimmy and score under the posts! Up stepped our man of the match, JK to slot the conversion to bring the scores level.

Again both sides went at each other, with the moment of the match being when Keegan broke from a ruck and set off at the Hastings centre ,and lets put it this way, it was like two Rhino’s colliding head on at 30 miles an hour, both players went down, but Keegan being Keegan was up and back at them in seconds… The rumble from the hit was felt by all!!

It looked all the world that our pressure on the Hasting’s line would yield a score, but as is our want, we went to sleep for a moment, their backs sniffed a break from a scrum and flew up the pitch for a score . This time the conversion wasn’t so clean cut, with kick being slightly sliced, hitting the right hand upright, before bouncing on the cross bar and dropping over, (akin to a certain England fly half later on in the day) .

With the clock running down it seemed that our erstwhile visitors were going to take the spoils , however our pack had once last say in the matter, with the likes of Jamie, Lawrence, and finally Harry punching deep through the opposition for Harry to score almost under the posts…

So it all came down to the conversion and, with time up, up stepped JK and cool as a cucumber slotted it home to tie the scores at 21-21.

A great game played with wonderful spirit by both sides, who warmly applauded each other off the pitch.

It was really nice to play Hastings who despite being on tour and the lure of watching Sarries later had not come to make up numbers. It is clear to see that they are a really well organised and drilled team, with a large degree of tactical nous, positional play and tactical kicking were a hallmark of their play, and something that we should look at…

It was a shame for each team that neither side could hold onto their leads,and a draw was a fair result.

Overall Tim/Iain and Grant were pleased with the outcome, but given that this was the first game of the year and Christmas puddings were lying heavy (on the adults), there are some key work areas that will need to be worked mid week, ahead of the League games this Sunday.

Thanks to both sets of supporters for their support on the sidelines, and those parents who aided with serving the post match food… and of course those who have taken their turn in cleaning the kits…

If there are parents who wouldn’t mind helping out with the cleaning I am sure that Pippa would only be too pleased to hear from you, and it makes a difference to the boys with clean fresh kit..