Steyning undone by Hove in friendly.

Steyning travelled to Hove on Saturday to play a friendly against their 3's after Holbrook pulled out of the fixture due to injury concerns and wanting to rest players for their league campaign.

It is always going to be a tough game away at Hove on a cup weekend, but it was a great opportunity to continue to learn and try out some new combinations and debut some of the new faces who have recently joined the club.

First Half
It was an unseasonably warm day, and Steyning started the game the slower of the two sides after a scrappy first 10 minutes.
(12) The deadlock was broken first by the home side after they managed to suck in a few too many Steyning defenders on the left hand side of the pitch, and then quickly ship it wide to the right and find the overlap to score in the corner. Try was converted, 7 - 0.
(18, 20) Hove then struck twice again with two tries in quick succession, again through some good work from their backline and Steyning failing to get their defensive line up quick enough, 19 - 0.

Luckily Steyning woke up after this, and much of the rest of the first half was played in the Hove half with some great work from forwards, who had an absolutely great day in the scrum winning the ball against the head on a number of occasions and only failing to secure the ball on their own line out on one occasion in the whole game.
(38) Steyning got one back with two minutes to go through Stu Cotter, after a great scrum in Hove's 22, the ball was fired out by Iain White who was standing in at 9 and put through the hands and Stu used his pace to get on the outside of Hove defence and score in the left hand corner. Conversion was missed, 19 - 5.

(40) Steyning scored right at the end of the first half after securing the ball from a penalty line out, and rumbling forward for 3/4 phases, Iain White went down the blindside and some quick hands from himself and Tim Laker saw Adam Walkington going in for a great finish in the corner for his first try for the club. (see video) Conversion was missed, 19 - 0.

Second Half
(47) With the wind in their tales Steyning started the second half much brighter, with some good rugby being played in the Hove half. After winning a scrum in the middle of the park just inside their own half, Iain White again decided to go on the short side firing a pass out to fullback Andrew Whatley who beat the winger and drew the fullback before passing out wide to Jon Harley at winger who ran a great support line and had the pace to finish. Try was converted by Tim Laker, 19 - 17.

(50) Unfortunately Hove struck back only 3 minutes later, with another try through their backline and some sloppy defending from Steyning and they ran through to score under the posts. Try was converted, 26 - 17.

(65) The rest of the half was rather scrappy as both sides started to tire and the play was back and forth with both sides having possession in the oppositions halves. Unfortunately once again Steyning were undone by Hove's backline, and the 10 ghosted on an inside shoulder after going wide to dot down. Conversion was missed, 31 - 17.

And that's how the game finished, a disappointing result but a fantastic effort by everyone to almost turn the game around after a slow start.
A good game despite lots of players out of position and learning the game.
Also some great debut's from Dale Fish, Kieron Newman, Theo Elliott-Pears and a couple of good cameos from the Laker brothers.
Lots to work on in training, defence defence defence and fitness as always.

The league returns at home to Burgess Hill 3's next weekend.