 Sunday 18th January 2009
Rugby U14`s: Eastbourne - Uckfield 12 - 12
In what was probably the best but certainly the most exciting match of the season so far the Uckfield U14`s managed to turn round what looked like to be a lost game into a draw and even had a chance of winning.
For the first time in many weeks the weather allowed some competitive rugby. The Uckfield boys travelled to Eastbourne for one of their most important fixtures of the season. The two teams are together with Edenbridge in strong contention for second place in the league which is clearly led by a very strong Lewes side. Although the last confrontation between the 2 teams in the previous season ended in a highly surprising minimal victory for Uckfield, there was no way the much bigger Eastbourne side was going to let this happen again.
After a much needed warming up, as their was an icy strong wind, both teams seemed ready. Uckfield was to start the game playing against the wind. After a good kick Uckfield quickly gained possession but partly due to the strong wind soon turned the ball over again. A splendid Eastbourne kick, slightly helped by the wind, allowed one of their players to break through scoring the first try of the match before the first minute had passed. The conversion was a formality, 7-0 to Eastbourne who after such a fortunate start were clearly expecting a near walk-over.
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Uckfield looked a bit shaken but was determined to not give up so easily. As the first half progressed Uckfield gained more and more control over the game. Eastbourne forgot to capitalize on the wind advantage and tried to overpower the Uckfield forwards instead. This was not a smart move, although much smaller the Uckfield forwards are experienced, fast, and fit, and very used to playing much bigger opponents. Fair enough, Eastbourne did get close to scoring once or twice, but ended the first half with "just" the one try. As said, Uckfield defended very well but made life difficult by trying to kick against the wind too often. Some exceptional good runs by the Uckfield Full Back, Fly half,and Inside Center relieved the defense and would have resulted in a try had it not been for the Eastbourne Full back who had a very good game. |
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Only one try behind and now having the wind advantage Uckfield started the second half optimistically. The boys however showed a lack of concentration, just like at the start of the match, which resulted in some sloppy tackling and again a quick unconverted try for Eastbourne. This however triggered something in the Uckfield side and changed the game completely. The Uckfield forwards started to overpower Eastbourne, the backs, helped by the wind, started moving and kicking the ball and running at the Eastbourne defence which started to look more and more intimidated. Several times the Uckfield boys got close to scoring and were only stopped by some desperate Eastbourne defending. Finally after about 7 minutes in the second half Uckfield scored off a penalty using their "steamroller move". Unfortunately the conversion was too hard,12-5. From then on it was a one-way game which resulted in yet another converted try a few minutes before the end of the match. This time the conversion was easy, 12-12! Staring defeat in the eye it has to be said that Eastbourne regained themselves and managed to only just control Uckfield from scoring a winning try. However after such a bad
start Uckfield celebrated the draw as a victory.
Sunday Jan 25th the U14`s play their next league match away against Worthing B
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