Seaford 12 – Crawley 19
Plagued with injuries this season, Crawley sent a squad to Seaford that had nine changes to the previous week’s team. The weather was again to play a major part in the encounter with the soft wet ground promising to turn it into a forward dominated match.
From the whistle the sticky pitch made the contestants appear to be playing in slow motion with neither side able to control the ball and many mistakes from both parties meant that the first twenty minutes were taken up with scrummages.
With 30 minutes gone the visiting forward started to come alive and break through the first line defences and from the ensuing rucks scrum-half Ryan Harvey making his debut was able to dig the ball out and allow fly-half Steve Cockram swiftly bring his backs into the game. With ball in hand the Crawley back looked dangerous but with many playing out of their normal positions it was not as fluid as usual and their efforts were scuppered just before the line on several occasions.
From a Crawley lineout a catch and drive forced Seaford onto the back foot and Ollie hall was able to peel from the maul and power over between the posts to score after 33 minutes, which was easily converted by Steve Cockram making a welcome return to the side.
Strong defence play in the centres by Richard Hewitt and debutant veteran Greg Salter stopped some powerful midfield breaks by the home side and with the visiting forwards working hard to get back and counter ruck the half finished with Crawley seven points ahead.
From the restart Seaford came out strongly and showed the spark that had not been evident by either side in the first period. It took them barley five minutes to level the score with some hard running and good forward support taking them across the line under the visitors post.
The following twenty minutes were a stalemate with neither side making any impression on the other. Some changes in the Crawley back line meant that the hardworking forwards Harrison Dean and Cian Morgan-Smith were asked to take up unfamiliar position in the centres and wing and it was from here that Dean took a quick wide ball to run around the stretched Seaford defence to give the visitors the ascendancy by five points.
Seaford rallied but were kept in their own half by the resolute tackling of second row partnership of Rod Gilliat and Kieron Gosling with the front row of Dean Riley, Ashley Eaton and Derek Hussain securing and turning over possession it was not long before Ollie Hall again found himself crossing the line for his second try which was converted to take the visitors twelve points clear.
Straight back into the game Seaford broke down the centre of the pitch and an usually disorganised Crawley defence parted to see the home centre win a foot race to the line, the missed conversion left them a converted try from a draw with only ten minutes to go.
The next ten minutes were like déjà vu for the Crawley coaching staff. Both recent encounters with Seaford have ended with Crawley camped on their own line with both sides narrowly winning one apiece. Seaford tried hard to break the deadlock and as they crossed the line the ball was judged dropped and knocked on to give the visitors some breathing space.
A Seaford player was yellow carded following the ensuing try line fracas and the awarded scrum was turned to a Crawley penalty.
The ball kicked to touch for a visitor’s lineout and the referee stated that this was to be the last play of the match. A throw under pressure into the lineout for Harry Mansfield was taken cleanly by Gosling and to the hand of Dan Keegan. As the Seaford forwards broke through the line Keegan calmly kicked the ball out to end the game.

The coaching staff were thrilled with their sides efforts, “we had eight players making season debuts into the first string squad, the rugby was not pretty but the effort and heart put into it by all was enough to bring home a win. We ended the game with three forwards in the backline but they all stood up to the challenges thrown at them and may have even found new positions to play. The future looks bright.”
Hussain, Eaton, Riley, Gosling, Gilliat, Dean, Morgan-Smith, Hall, Harvey, Cockram, Salter, Hewitt, Mansfield, Keegan, Rodwell, Stevenson, Barnes, Plunkett.