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28-29 November match reports
30th November 2009

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Seniors

Lewes 1st XV 28 Nov v Old DunstoniansSaturday 28 November

Lewes 1st XV dusted off by Dunstonian

Score: Old Dunstonian 31 - Lewes 15
Report by Dereck Wade
Photographs by Alan Page

Lewes’ recent slump in form continued on Saturday with an unexpected loss away to lowly-placed Old Dunstonian. With several team changes due to injuries and unavailabilities affecting the side`s balance, a fumbled ball straight from the kick -off did not help, as it immediately put the hosts on the offensive. Lewes were slow to settle down and conceded a soft try after only two minutes of the match when Dunstonian’s scrum-half, Nick Mott, darted round the blind side of a scrum from the 22 metre line to run unopposed for the opening try, converted to make it 7 – 0.

Nine minutes later Lewes hit back with a well-taken penalty from centre Nick Sharp to narrow the differential to 7 – 3. But on the half-hour, Dunstonian pulled ahead with their second, unconverted try, to turn round 12 – 3 up at the break.

Five minutes into the second half the hosts stretched their lead to 17 – 3 with another unconverted try, but this seemed to stir Lewes into action, as their pack began to win more ball and territory to drive into their opponents’ half. This bout of pressure paid off on the hour when No. 8 Matt Ridley rounded off a series of fine attacking rucks and mauls to dive over in the corner for his side’s first try, converted by Sharp, to narrow the gap to 17 – 10. It took only a another two minutes for this to become 17 – 15, when veteran hooker Gordon Denslow benefited from a quick throw to the front of a line-out, from which the ball was passed straight back to him to score out wide on the right; unfortunately, the score-equalling conversion missed, but at this stage Lewes appeared at least to have pulled themselves back into the game.

However, in the last seven minutes of the match some indifferent tackling and poorly-organised defence saw Lewes once again concede soft points, first when Dunstonian`s outside–half Brendan Holliday chipped a grubber kick behind the visitors’ line to touch down near the posts for a converted try, then, almost on the final whistle, a flowing attack resulted in the last converted try of the match to see Old Dunstonian deserved winners by 31 – 15. This reversal sees Lewes slip further down the League table, from the heady heights of third only a few weeks ago to mid-table seventh.

Lewes: Andre, Denslow, Williams (Lundin), Gorbell (Capt.), Brant, Falk (Howkins), Arbuthnot, Ridley, Blunt, Terry, Mills, Hutchinson, Sharp, Halpin, Bell (Freshwater).

Next week, Lewes 1st XV hopes to return to winning ways with a home match against second-from-bottom Purley John Fisher, k.o. 2.15pm.

No other men's games were played this weekend.

Saturday 29 November

Ladies

Marlow 0 v Lewes Ladies 10
Report by Rebecca Willis

Lewes ladies reach joint second in the league with another win (first away win of the season) against Marlow. Going from strength to strength, the ladies braved some tough conditions seriously affecting handling without which the score may have been considerably higher. Still two tries by winger Cat Wiltshire secured the points and the ladies came home smiling!

Youth

Colts are favourites by a mile

Lewes Colts v Haywards Heath
Report by Aidan Byrne
Score: 41 - 0

Lewes RFC goes into the final of the U17s cup after beating Haywards Heath in the semi finals. Torrential rain and a gusting wind made the conditions very difficult at a fixture held in Lewes Priory College pitch as Stanley Turner pitches were unplayable. The Haywards Heath side were hurt by the amount of players who could not make the fixture – they ended up with 10 members of the starting line-up being U16s.

Haywards Heath started with the wind and capitalising from a series of errors on the part of Lewes managing to get themselves into a try scoring opportunity – but a ferocious tackle from Charlie Savage stopped this dead in its tracks. From the ensuing scrum Lewes cleared their line and from then on it was one-way traffic. Savage finished off a good move by the Lewes pack and scored in the corner. George Dean then scored from a lineout that was mauled over the line. Aaron White scored another try after Dean was hauled down just short of the line. Just before half time Raff Gunn scored a great solo try when he ran from the outside the Haywards Heath 22 slipping through a hole in the HH defence and stepping the fullback to score in the corner.

The second half was also dominated by Lewes with tries from Danny Hemsley, Josh Hillman and a second from Gunn. Haywards Heath should be complimented on keeping their shape and defending valiantly but were obviously weakened by the amount of U17’s who could not make the fixture. The U16s on their squad tried their best but the physicality of the Lewes U17s squad was always going to make it a tough day in the office for them.

Lewes are now in the final of the Sussex Cup and having scored 90 points and conceded none they must be favourites to win.

Scorers for Lewes: Charles Savage (1 Try) , George Dean (1 Try), Raff Gunn (2 Tries) Danny Hemsley (1 Try), Josh Hillman (1 Try), Aaron White (1 Try) Lewes Harte (3 Converstions)

Lewes Squad: George Dean, Tom Pellett, Ryohei Ishida, Lockie Diplock, Stuart Diplock,   Aaron White, Ollie Stables, Josh Hillman, Lewis Harte, Christian Vanezi, Charlie Savage, Danny Hemsley, Ryan Byrne, Raff Gunn, Ollie Callaghan, Tom Hocking, Theo Tyrer

Lewes U15s 29 Nov - v PulboroughPulborough U15 v Lewes U15
Score: 17 - 17
Report by Declan Dickens

Lewes moved this league fixture from a water logged pitch at home to Pulborough knowing that another defeat would make staying up in the division very difficult. The weather did not improve and contributed torrential rain and wind and even some horizontally driven hail. The match began with Pulborough moving the ball well and attacking uphill. Some poor rucking from Lewes and poor positional play allowed Pulborough to take an early lead by scoring a try straight up the middle of the pitch creating a perfect opportunity to convert right under the posts 7 - 0 to the home side Lewes forwards began to move the move ball amongst them and the strong Lewes scrum began to win the front row contest. So it was that with 20 minutes gone, Lewes ran in a well deserved try but the strong wind and angle denied the extra points. Lewes’ poor rucking returned with forwards for some strange reason rolling up to Pulborough’s line and stopping, handing back any advantage they may have created by pushing the opposition back five metres. This lack of possession and some enterprising play from Pulborough saw the home team extend their lead to 12 - 5 just before half time.

The second half began with a kick that started going forward but the wind took it back a full 10 metres. And so with the weather deteriorating it was to the credit of both teams that some of the best rugby of the match was played.

Lewes forwards began to push Pulborough back into their own 22 and this pressure was rewarded by an enterprising phase of play that saw a Pulborough player think he had grounded the ball defending his line but he hadn’t and Lewes forward Zak Khan took the opportunity to make the score 12-12 with a succesful conversion. Lewes then took the game to Pulborough forwards and were rewarded with a push over try some 10 minutes later, no conversion. 12-17 to Lewes.
Lewes then put together a sequence of 17 phases pushing the opposition team back to within 10 metres of their try line and with five minutes to go must have been confident of their first league win. However, the Pulborough fullback kicked downhill with a following wind into the distant far corner of the pitch.

The resulting chase was won by Pulborough and the match ended 17 all.

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