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27 - 28 March match reports
29th March 2010

Men's 1st XV match report >>
Lewes Colts vs Horsham - U18 win >>
Lewes U10s Horsham festival results >>
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Senior men

27 March 2010

Lewes 1st XV vs Hove
Score: 12- 41
Match Report by Dereck Wade
Senior images courtesy of NLC Photography, Lewes

(Pictured: No. 8 Matt Ridley leads attack)

In their last home match of the season, and in front of large and vocal crowd, Lewes went down in this local derby against promotion hopefuls Hove in an entertaining match, watched by RFU Chief Executive Francis Baron (a resident of Lewes District!) and the RFU's Chairman of Community Rugby, Rod Unwin.

Lewes were in with a shout at half time, but Hove – a Club whose fortunes have risen since they re-located, with the assistance of their supportive local Council, to their new ground and Clubhouse – and assisted by a sprinkling of former Lewes players, ran away with the match in the second half.

This result sees Lewes slip to fifth in the League, which, because of the gap in points with the teams below them in the League, will be their final position – nevertheless a significant improvement on the last two seasons, when the struggle was to avoid relegation.

The early pressure was from the visitors but an early penalty against Lewes in the third minute for offside was missed. Eight minutes later, however, Hove took the lead at 0 – 3 with a drop-goal from their left-winger, Adam Phillips. At this stage, there was little between the teams, but after 17 minutes, Lewes's experienced hooker Gordon Denslow had to leave the field with an injury and this – coupled with the late withdrawal that morning of in-form prop-forward Steve Andre due to illness - meant that Lewes were now facing an uphill struggle in the scrum.

Indeed, it took Hove only another minute for them to stretch their lead to 0 – 10 as Lewes, obviously unsettled by the disruption to their pack, were driven backwards towards their own line, ending in the opening try of the match from Phillips, which he also converted.

But Lewes hit back six minutes later when, following a period of some pressure, quick ball was won, enabling scrum-half Charlie Terry to dart towards the line before releasing to skipper Ben Hamer, coming into the attack at speed, for a fine try near the posts. The conversion by outside-half Rocky Matatumua saw the home side claw back the points gap to 7 – 10. The chance to draw level was missed some 2 minutes later when Matatumua's difficult penalty kick swerved wide of the posts, and Hove hit back soon after when, following good, controlled rugby by their forwards, scrum-half Matt Sole took the ball and crashed over for a try near the posts, converted by Phillips, to se his side go in 7 – 17 up at the break.

The second half saw increased Hove possession and territory, with some flowing rugby as a result, but it took them until the 53rd minute to increase their lead to 7 – 22, fly-half Ben Coulson going over for a well-worked but unconverted try. This became 7 – 27 soon after, centre Chris Eden going over wide out left for another unconverted try.

The last few minutes of the match saw some frenetic rugby from both sides, Hove scoring further tries from full-back Ben Ward and centre Sean Taylor, both converted by Phillips, to make it 7 – 41, but Lewes scoring the last try of the match just before the final whistle, Hamer touching down for his second after a clever chip forward from Terry to the left corner, to make the final score 12 – 41.

Lewes: Mason, Denslow (Read), Williams, Brant, Gorbell, Arbuthnot, Tudor, Ridley, Terry, Matatumua, Mills (Blunt), Hamer (Capt.), Sharp, Bell, Hutchinson

Lewes's last League fixture is away to unbeaten Tonbridge Juddians on 10 April, but this coming weekend, Lewes Senior Mens and Womens teams are visiting twin-town Blois, in France, for games over the Easter break.

Juniors

28 March 2010

Lewes Colts vs Horsham Colts
Score: 37 - 22
Match report by Aidan Byrne
Images courtesy of Nick White

(Pictured: Seb Lampard steps out)
The second encounter this season between Lewes Colts and Horsham RFC was another comfortable win for Lewes Colts. Still not firing on all cylinders they still were easy winners against an enthuastic Horsham squad who did not loose their shape in the face of a strong Lewes attack.

Playing with the wind Lewes did not start well and took some time to get going. Only some strong tackling from Josh Hillman and Raff Gunn prevented disaster. Horsham failed to convert the penalty they won in front of the posts. This seemed to wake up Lewes and some strong forward play with quick rucks and mauls got them to the Horsham try line. A high Horsham defensive kick was beautifully fielded by the Lewes full back (Ryan Byrne) who ran through four defenders and opened the scoring. Horsham responded with a penalty in front of the posts. Lewes then started to put them under the cosh. Tries from Christian Vanezi, Charlie Savage, another from Byrne and one from Theo got the half time score to 27-3. Lewes were playing with passion, power, precision and pace and it is a credit to the Horsham defense that they managed to keep their shape under the onslaught.

With the comfortable lead at half time Lewes made seven positional changes bringing on a new experimental back division. Kieron Martin playing his first game for Lewes as scrum-half. Horsham exploited the positional changes to their advantage as the Lewes players got used to playing with each other. Billie Filmer and Christian scored for Lewes. However Horsham had the territorial advantage and did score three tries. The most interesting scorer was Sam Rawson, the Lewes Hooker, who was playing for Horsham and scored a quick tap penalty against his home side. For Lewes Tom Pellett and Aaron White were very prominent in the loose. Dom Burns made some telling runs down the right wing and Sam Peate put in some great try saving tackles when he was playing fullback in the second half.

The next two games for Lewes are against Haywards Heath and Worthing and are top of the table clashes. These are the most important games Lewes Colts will play and will be pivotal as to how successful the team are this season.

Scorers for Lewes Ryan Byrne (2 tries), Christian Vanezi (2 tries), Charlie Savage (1 try), Billie Filmer (1 try), Theo Tyrer (1 try) Lewes Harte (2 conversions).

Lewes Squad:, Tom Hocking, Sam Rawson, Tom Pellett, Lockie Diplock, Stuart Diplock, Danny Hemsley, Christian Vanezi, Charlie Savage, Josh Hillman, Lewis Harte, Theo Tyrer, Ryan Byrne, Austin Weight, Matt Jones, Raff Gunn, Ollie Stables, Owen Lewes, Billie Filmer, Kieron Martin, Aaron White, Sam Peate.

28 March 2010

Lewes U10s - Horsham U10s Festival

Lewes 0 - Horsham 25
Lewes 10 (Coomber 2) - Chichester 15
Lewes 5 (Hayes) - Jersey 10

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