Crawley 2's 17 - 29 Rye

Crawley 2nds fielded a team filled with a mixture of young talent and experience to face Rye who sat second in the league going in to this game. With Crawley starting a man down they were going to have to work hard to get any thing out of the game. Crawley kicked off pining rye deep in to there own half however as Rye started to get into the game Crawley became under increasing pressure. With the sun in Crawley's eyes, Rye used this in there favour and kicked a lot of ball deep in to Crawley’s half. Crawley dealt with the pressure but after about 20 minutes Crawley missed a number of tackles and rye used there extra man to score the firsts point of the game. Rye scored there only successful conversion of the game leaving the score 7-0. Crawley began to lose concentration and soon rye had crossed Crawley's line to score again to make the score 12-0. Crawley regrouped under the post and went back at rye, the remainder of the half was evenly contested until Crawley missed a number of tackles on the stroke of half time allowing rye to cross there line once again leaving Crawley 17-0 down at the break.

Crawley were still half a sleep as rye kicked off the second half, an early knock on from the restart in Crawley’s 22 put pressure on them. rye spread the ball well and hit there extra man out wide with Crawley’s drift defence not fully functioning and a number of miss tackles rye scored our wide, the score was now 24-0. Crawley started to show a bit of character putting rye under pressure. Crawley kicked through the rye defence, leading to a race between the two sides for who would get to the ball firsts as it bobbled over the rye line. Chav looked certain to get to the ball firsts to score the try for Crawley but a lack of experience was shown from the young rye winger as he pulled chav down off the ball stopping him from scoring the try. The referee had no choice but to award a penalty try and Crawley where on the score sheet. Joe Callus slotted the conversion over to make the score 24-7. The game started to heat up and both teams where warned by the referee. A lot of the rugby was now being played deep in to Ryes 22 with rye having to deal with the pressure. Ollie Plunkett took a knee to the head causing him to leave the field of play leaving rye with a two man advantage, this had no affect though as Crawley managed to get the ball out wide and Mark Death scored in the corner, the conversion attempt was unsuccessful. after a short break Ollie Plunkett was back on for the restart from which Crawley were pinned deep in to there own half. Crawley tried to use some quick ball to get the ball out wide were they had spotted some space, how ever a looping pass thrown under pressure was intercepted and rye were in for another try making the score 29-12. Crawley again from the restart kept rye in there own half and a moment of magic form Bob Grantham which a back would have been proud of. A cheeky side step and bob had a clear run to the line he then finished off the move with a swallow dive to score the try. Crawley where now trailing 29-17. The last ten minutes were even more heated as Crawley went in search of the winning points. There was a number of off the ball incidents which seemed to entertain the crowd. As some players got a bit hot headed the referee gave both teams a last warning. Both teams were still competing well and neither team where going to give up. Crawley were once again back in there own 22 and started to give away silly penalties away, much to Crawley surprise rye opted to kick all the penalties they where awarded and Crawley took a sigh of relief as they were all put wide. with five minutes to go jack read was giving his marching orders when he struck a rye player with his boot, he was sent for 10 minutes in the sin bin. With Crawley down by 2 men again the referee called last play of the game and rye ran the ball through there big players and Dan Morgan did his best to stop them but as he hit the rye player he dislocated his shoulder. The referee blew for time and the final score was 29-17.

Crawley showed a lot of character and passion in the second half and it was good to get a team out which was competitive and gave rye a hard game. With Dan receiving treatment, we were all provided with a bit of after match entertainment as the ambulance got stuck on the pitch as it sunk in to the mud, it was rescued by a number of players and supporters and hour and a bit later.

On behalf of Crawley rugby club I would like to wish Dan Morgan a speedy recovery and we look forward to seeing you back out on the field very soon.