It was a cold and frosty morning at Fortress Willoughby this Sunday, but that did not stop both teams from providing a very skillful and entertaining match, to the delight of the watching spectators! Right from the start it was evident that Shoreham were a very well drilled side with some tricky and pacey backs in their side, whilst Crawley were using their big trio of forwards to batter down the middle of the Shoreham defence. A powerful run from Shoreham saw them take the lead deservedly but Crawley hit back with powerful running from Sebastian Brogan and Harry Beckley-Bannerton that saw Crawley keeping the honours even by half time with the score at 3 tries apiece. The second half got under way with some sloppy defending by the home side, punished by some excellent play by Shoreham from the breakdown, allowing the travelling team to take a 2 try lead early on. This seemed to kick start the Crawley boys who fought back quickly! Some good work at the back from Ross Sandwell and Jaydon Friend allowed the boys to close the gap to 5 points, however, yet again, Crawley dozed off at the back defensively and Shoreham gave them a scare with a well worked try down the left wing exploiting the gap. Despite a ‘Man of the Match’ performance from Ryan Holloway, who was everywhere putting his body on the line for his team, the Crawley boys just couldn’t close the gap on this talented Shoreham side who deservedly held on to take the victory at the end of the match! Both sets of supporters and Coaches were delighted with the performance from both sides in a highly entertaining and bruising encounter. All the boys should be very proud of their development and will, no doubt, have the bigger Sussex clubs looking over their shoulders at these emerging talented sides.