After the rain last week leaving no match it was off to Uckfield for what was going to be the Youth of Uckfield against the Experience of H & B.
The weather could not have been better reminding me of a cool summers afternoon. As captain of the day Duncan Dobson started by winning the toss and opted to play down hill and with the wind for the first half. Having to make the a strong start, H&B took control of the game quickly and kept the game firmly in the Uckfield half, dominating the line-outs they got themselves to with 5 meters of the uckfield line. 5-0.
Laying down a great defence Uckfield held back H&B for almost 15 minutes before from a rolling maul prop Duncan Dobson crashed over the line to open scoring. Uckfield came back strong, but failed to keep the back and soon found the battle was back within their own half again.
Uckfield found the going hard in the set play but showed good moves when they could get the ball out-wide. Half-time looming with Uckfield defending a scrum 7 meters from their own line, H&B drove hard and has the scrum turned the ref blew up turning over to the ball to H&B.
They set the drive was on and as the line approached the scrum started to turn again, Spotting a gap No.8 Brian McNeilly collected the ball and bulldozed over the line taking the score to 10-0 Peter Eames kicking converted giving H&B 12-0 and the whistle went for the break.
H&B made a number of subs at half time including Phil Begg for McNeilly at No8, Mat Bumpass for Nick Beaney in the centre and Dominic Sewell on for old war horse Alan Verity in the second row. Restarting, Uckfield held H&B and soon came back into the game as they exploited a momentary laps in concentration in the H&B defence to rush over for a converted try 7-12.
The second half continued much as the first as the forward's of H&B rucked and mauled and Uckfield's backs ran the ball out wide. 20 minutes into the second half another H&B scrum 15 meters out allowed Phil Begg to pick up and spring gazelle like over the line converted by Eames to make it 7-19 to H&B. With time running out Uckfield again sprinted through the H&B defence to bring the scores back to 14-19 resulting a very exciting last 5 minutes both sides pushing hard and the ball moving all over the pitch to the end.
Final score 19-14 to H&B.
Next week it's a rearranged game against Hellingly
