Clash at the Top

With one loss apiece, Crowborough and G’s lie at the top of the table. After we just scraped past the Cherry and Whites earlier in the season, we knew they would be coming to Saint Hill with all guns blazing, eager to make amends. If the previous encounter was anything to go by, this was going to be a titanic encounter with no quarter given.

A little light in the half back position this week, Gibbo bravely pulled on the 9 jersey, and Matty stepped out to 10. The pitch was excellent considering the rain that had fallen over the last couple of days, but unfortunately the sun disappeared and the rain fell again to scupper any thoughts of a free flowing game. G’s started well however, and great hands saw the rather hungover Robbie, clear away the cobwebs with a long dash down the left to get the ball rolling. Playing the conditions beautifully, the ball was worked into the Crow’s 22 and great control and phase play eventually saw Max ignore the enormous overlap to bust over the line to announce his injury comeback with style!

Crowborough were not done! They came storming back with their huge runners battering our line until even our heroic defence couldn’t repel a fine thrust, and suddenly things didn’t seem quite as comfortable with the score at 10 - 7 as the half time whistle went. Knowing we should be far further ahead after the dominance shown, a few changes were made, and we determined to keep things tight. This certainly did the trick as Robbie stood up his winger to score his brace, and Dom smashed through for his first senior try. Another from Dom followed before Oli streaked down the right for a cracker.

Not a beautiful game by any account, but I was very pleased with how we played the testing conditions and a very competitive Crowborough outfit. Also a massive lift to see EG on their own at the top of the table as we come towards the end of the year.

MoM went to Max Crawley-Moore who showed off his complete array of skills after a lengthy injury layoff. DotD went to Matt Brooke, who was caught using hairspray before the game to look nice for the oppo!