Match Report

Sussex U20’s v Hertfordshire Stags


Weather conditions were perfect on the day and the pitch was in fine condition for some fast flowing rugby. Unfortunately Sussex took an early blow in the warm up as captain Andy Gray failed a fitness test. Sam Pitchford therefore took the No.8 slot with Fraser Rogers starting in the second Row. Jake Joyce stepped up to take the captaincy for the match.

The start of the game was very much a defensive start for Sussex with Hertfordshire coming quickly out the starting blocks. In the first 10 minutes some big hits from the Sussex side lifted the tempo of the game but some apprehensive early penalties were conceded along with a successful penalty kick for Hertfordshire to take the first points. (3-0)

A sin binning decision for Sam Pitchford for team offences put pressure on the away side and gave the numbers advantage to the home team who were enjoying the majority of the possession. Some hard defence could not stop them from going over for the first try underneath the posts to give an easy conversions attempt that was not missed. (10-0)

Towards the end of a poor first half, Sussex began to retain some possession and moved up the pitch with a series of phases. Some solid scrummaging helped us retain the ball and a rare penalty and good positional kick from Alex Marsh pushed Hertfordshire onto their try line. Gleave had to come off with a reoccurring injury to the back and was replaced by Mahoney at prop. Unfortunately even though Sussex won the lineout and moved the ball out to space we couldn’t breakthrough their defence and a missed penalty kick meant no points before half time. (10- 0)

Sussex started well during the second half and Alex Marsh gained points from a penalty after some good attacking play. (10- 3) However, this was short lived as some poor first up tackling from Sussex gave Hertfordshire a break away try under the posts which was converted. (17- 3)

Some good driving play from Pitchford set up a good field position, but this was kicked away which allowed Hertfordshire to regain the ball. The lack of support created space for them to run into the corner with few defenders to negotiate before scoring again. (22-3)

Josh Townsend came on to replace another injured loose head and made some early big tackles. Joe Hoare also needed replacing in the centre by Figg. Dave Winsor moved from Scrum half to inside centre replacing Ben Robson and Rob Perry moved into the Scrum half position.

Hertfordshire scored again with a try which was created by a slow drift defence and missed first time tackles by Sussex giving the over lap and another score under the posts. (27-3)

In the last 10min Sussex kept their heads up and played aggressively but it was too little to late.

14/2/10