RUGBY: Unequal Contests
Sevenoaks II 62, Hastings & Bexhill 3
Hastings & Bexhill 15, Dover 55
PETER KNIGHT
Without several first-choice players injured or unavailable, Hastings & Bexhill played on two successive Saturdays against sides at the top of the Kent 2 League. Predictably, and despite valiant efforts particularly in the pack, they found themselves outgunned in both games, and conceded an aggregate of 117 points between them.
The Sevenoaks 1st XV play in National League Division 2 alongside such clubs as Blackheath, Bury St Edmunds and Guernsey. Many of the players included in their 2nd XV have represented the senior team, and the difference in ability, coaching and physicality was obvious.
By half time they had scored five tries with three converted making the score 31-nil. Five more in the second half plus three conversions completed the rout. Skipper Bruce Steadman put H&B on the scoreboard with a well-taken penalty late in the game.
In football terms this was Manchester United against Hastings United. The RFU experiment of including the 2nd XVs of senior clubs in this level 8 league has not worked. The bottom three clubs Southwark Lancers, Maidstone and H&B have all suffered torrid seasons. Many players have suffered injuries, and their enjoyment of a hobby must wane considerably when they’re matched so unequally.
Vastly superior
Dover, though they don’t have a more senior team, clearly have the resources to compete at this level and were also vastly superior on their visit to the Ark Alexandra ground last Saturday.
H&B’s 18-man squad played their hearts out, scoring two first half tries – one after only three minutes from Louis Sealy, converted by Steadman, and another just before the interval touched down by flanker Chris Pillow after the Dover pack was pushed back over the try line following a five-metre line-out. But the visitors scored four tries themselves between these scores, and five more in the second half, H&B’s only reply being a good penalty kick by Steadman.
Harry Walker and Quinn McManus put in sterling performances in both games. Joe Field, Joe Jenner, Steadman and Pillow should also be mentioned in dispatches.
Next week H&B complete their league programme away to Gillingham Anchorians. They will hope that some of their injured players will be able to return and that they will repeat their early season win against the Medway club. Cup matches in both the Sussex and Kent competitions follow in the weeks leading up to Easter.
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