This Saturday saw the ones play their first home game of the season against Ryan Morlan’s revitalised Shoreham.

In the opening 25 minutes, East Grinstead struck quickly, running moves straight off the training pitch by owning territory and gaining yards. The maul off the line out saw consecutive successes, with forward pods then breaking the gain line and allowing the backs to strike with a succession of early trys. First of which went to Will in the corner, then Ben Green on debut assisting Ali to go over the white wash, Totty breaking off the back of the maul 5m out, to put Mark Lewis in at the corner and Or smashing over on first phase like an rampaging OX.

With a number of trys on the scoreboard, EG looked to have the game in their control at the end of the first half. With Shoreham attacking, G’s defence was working hard, with big hits from Aaron and Totty (as usual) as well as covering tackles from yours truly.

Then the moment of the match. We turned over the ball and the crowd roared as Captain Rory released myself (Brimo) into a hole. The whole crowd rose as one, as they watched me accelerate for 45 yards in just under six seconds, just over the time it takes Usain Bolt to cover a similar distance (Streaked straight past Radcliffe!).

This run was spectacular, perhaps even shocking, but did earn me dick of the day as my vision narrowed. The only thing between me and the try line was Shoreham’s full back, winger and a further 45 yards. My options were, pass left to Mark Lewis who was amongst defenders (who would’ve probably run in for a try) or Sam Lindsay-McCall and Will Roberts to my right, who with no defenders, almost certainly would’ve scored. But, as I already stated, my lightning pace and with the ball tucked under one arm, both of these options seemed too risky, so I ran between the two defenders beating the fullback with my nifty footwork whilst shaking off the wingers tackle, although this did leave me slightly unstable, with my scrummaging legs not being able to keep up with the momentum of my top half, meaning I deliberately and elegantly went to ground to secure the ruck. I was vindicated however, as the next phase we knocked the ball on, giving Shoreham the scrum. Not to worry though as the EG pack (me especially) won the free kick for Jake to run it through the middle for another try.

The second half had more scrums, 20 in total over the game, with mighty G’s turning over 5 of Shoreham’s, wining penalties off 2, and free kicks on another 2. There were less line outs in the later stages of the game to Noo Noo’s frustration. With Connor Leggat not wanting to miss out on the fun, he made a similar ‘smash and grab’ run up the pitch for more than 30 yards before he showed his ability to offload. Unfortunately this was to a Shoreham player who couldn’t believe his luck - surely this should have been the DotD moment? I should have passed and Connor shouldn’t have?? Complex beast this rugby malarkey.

Once we won the ball back, Rory ran through Ryan to score under the sticks.

Other notable points, Totty pulled his hamstring in a ruck and Josh Weaver took a Yellow card for a high tackle in the red zone whilst on a team warning, for which he gets the pleasure of washing on Thursday.

Trys also came from Luke Maker, John Peaty, Ben Marelli, another for Mark Lewis (wining him Man of the Match) and Ben Green on debut, who ran hard and fast all game. With 11 trys, every back scored so the forwards must have been doing something right. Luke Maker also smashed over 7 of the conversions and his kicking for touch was on point.

In summary, set piece functioned brilliantly, the forwards created huge gain line success in the loose and the backs ran wild with minimal errors. The team didn’t take the foot off the gas, and a huge thanks to Shoreham for keeping their heads high and playing with the spirt of the game, as they ran in two try’s against the Mighty G’s wall.

Final Score 69-12

Next Week 1s travel to Brighton, whilst 2s face Worthing at home in league match ups.

Brimo | EGRFC Tight Head Prop and Scrum Coach