Seaford vs EGRFC 1st XV

The blue and white hoops travelled down to Seaford this weekend to an unsurprisingly wet, windy and cold Seaford (has this town ever seen sunshine!?). Despite the coaching staff's troubles pre match with no balls or medical bag in sight at the club, the team had a much better start to the match on the pitch. Although no points were earned in the first 25 minutes, G’s were looking dominant, maintaining possession and keeping the ball in Seaford’s half. Playing with the wind behind us and the slippery conditions, Gray at 10 was playing for territory brilliantly, kicking the ball high and deep to put Seaford under pressure, forcing knock-ons on a number of occasions. Finally the G's efforts were rewarded with a break away try from Moffatt, fending off a number of defenders who stood in his path. Unfortunately for Radcliffe, back from Uni for the boys, hadn’t experienced more than a gentle breeze up north and the battering winds got the better of his kick for posts and the G’s remained at 5-0. The bruising affair continued down on the coast with both teams keeping it tight, carrying hard and utilising their kicking games to put each other under pressure. Amazingly when the ball did find touch, Kiernan had mastered the art of throwing darts (how he’s better in the wet and wind we aren’t quite sure!) and the hands of Peaty and Champain were providing good ball for our backs to work with. G's hard work was once again rewarded with a try for our other centre Andrews who also carried strong, slipping past a number of defenders before touching down. This time Radcliffe had acclimatised to the conditions and slotted the conversion through the uprights. First half finished 0-12 East Grinstead.

The second half was always going to be tough, playing against the wind against a side who found these conditions almost tropical in comparison to normal. From the off this half looked more even, Seaford obviously not wanting to disappoint their home fans came out firing but G's defence held strong. Seaford, 15 minutes into the second half managed to exploit a gap in the G's defence to get their first points on the board. G's, despite having good possession in the half, running well, being dominant in the scrum, couldn’t find a way to capitalise and Seaford managed to run another try in and this time with an unsuccessful conversion left the points level with 10 minutes to go. Seaford desperate to score and G's indignant that they wouldn’t let that happen, defended our own line for 5 minutes with Seaford being held back with great defence from all the team. Unfortunately after what was surely an eternity and an infinite amount of pick and goes from Seaford, their flanker found himself in the pocket and even to Seaford spectators surprise managed to slot the drop goal, leaving the score at 15-12 to Seaford which would end up to be the final score.

Tough game and a massive shame not to get the win, but the team will use this week off wisely and come out firing against Crawley in 2 weeks time.

A special mention has to go to Seaford’s 12 year old linesman who knew the rules as well as the ref (or probably better..). Also to Lukis, because despite a solid game at 9, for the last penalty of the game, he decided to kick the ball to touch, only to have the sudden realisation that our hooker had gone off injured, therefore out of decency offered to through the ball in himself (impressively it was straight[ish] however G's couldn’t capitalise before the ball went dead).