Saturday Old Reigatian returned to Hove RFC for the first time since 2018 when they lost the promotion play off in the dying seconds after leading comfortably for the majority of the game.
Only two remained from that team Saturday Hooker and Ex Captain George Wheeler and Wing Harrison Mitchell. Club legends such as Mark Chesterton and Luke Martin making way for the exciting youth of Paul Marshall, Ciaran Nestor Jack Baart and Finn Coyle and many more, which surely make the future of the Club very exciting.
Nestor normally a Hooker had moved across to make way for Wheeler in the front row and Marshall moved to his less favourite No3 side of the scrum. The front row looked mobile if maybe slightly light when we saw the Hove front row take to the field. On paper our backline looked exciting and our pack mobile, on a sunny day on the coast to play an open flowing game was always going to favour the men in Blue & Green.
The game started fairly even with Hove having more field position and ORs unable to get their lineout operating found it difficult to get that width and continuity but also kept falling foul of the Ref at the breakdown. On one of these occasions gave Hove the chance to take the lead with a penalty which was converted to give the hosts a 3-0 lead.
Again Hove managed the have the upper hand on field position but couldn’t break down the ORs defence. The defence finally forced an error which lead to a turnover and a long kick down field which allowed Finn Coyle to show his pace and win the race to touchdown. Another great individual try from Finn. The extras were added by Sam Turner making the kick from wide out to make the score 3-7.
This seemed to give OR’s more confidence and they ran the patterns well but ill discipline meant that a lot of hard work came to nothing with the score at Half Time remaining 3 -7 and a Penalty count of OR 7 Hove 1.
Second half OR continued to play with more confidence and gained better field position with forwards being held up short of the line they managed to keep the ball alive and after a few attempts to get over the try line Jack Baart scored a well deserved try, however the conversion was missed 3-12.
The penalty decisions continued to go against the visitors which lead to another kickable penalty in front of the posts which allowed Hove to close the gap to 6-12.
On the hour ORs showed what they are capable of with some great interpassing in midfield to break the gain line a quick ruck and the ball passed out the same way and again Jack Baart was there to finish off the move putting down under the posts to allow Sam Turner an easy two points to make it 6-19 and put ORs within a try of a bonus point win.
ORs looked the more dominant side now as a rare penalty was awarded in striking distance Skipper George Perry decided to take the points which Sam Turner converted to move the score to what looked a comfortable 6-22.
With some personal changes in the Hove front row and Paul Marshall leaving the field with a shoulder injury Hove started to get some go forward at scrum time which they used to great effect on a rare visit to ORs 22 they managed a try from the base of a scrum to close the score to 11-22.
ORs continued to press for the BP try and again fell foul of the Ref with Seb Courtney Walker who had not long come off the bench given a yellow card for entering the ruck from the side.
With only 14 men give Hove the opportunity to push into ORs half and claim another try with the last move of the game to give a final score of 16-22.
Credit to Hove who never gave up and claimed their losing BP but a good start to the league campaign with an away win. The discipline has to be sorted out with the final penalty count a massive 17 against and 5 for.
Hove 16 – 22 Old Reigatian
Next up league leaders Totts who are two BP wins from two. Should be a great game at Park Lane as much support as possible please.
Team: Ciaran Nestor, George Wheeler, Paul Marshall, Dan Grant, Dan Jones, S. Foreman, Oli Brooks, Jack Baart, Alex Skinner, Sam Turner, Harrison Mitchell, Rob Williamson, George Perry ©, Finn Coyle, Max Coyle
Bench: Toby Collister, Seb Courtney Walker, Ben Holder
