Brighton’s UBRFC continued their impressive home form at Falmer campus with a victory over league leaders, Royal Holloway First XV.
The traditional old English game was played on a day of traditional old English weather. The strong winds, accustomed to the coastal conditions at Falmer, were soon accompanied by torrential rain and hail stones. The heavens eased up as kick off approached, but the players were still facing the tough conditions of the aftermath.
The opening stages were reminiscent of a tug-of-war. UBRFC were first to make the big pull…
Brighton began by working their opponent’s stamina with high possession of the ball and the Holloway defence were constantly on the chase. This possession came through Nathan Hyde and Charlie Simpson working the crash ball nicely, with strong support from Brighton’s front row.
But Royal Holloway managed to dig their heels in…
The league leaders finally broke up Brighton’s crash ball and worked the ball into the home team’s twenty-two. As the pressure mounted, UBRFC found a couple of their players getting in trouble with the referee: Luke Raynor and Harrison Edgison received yellow cards for offside and tackling a player in the air respectively.
The rope heads in Brighton’s direction as they make the first significant pull of the game…
Brighton managed to relieve the pressure from their defence with a big clearing kick from Joe Shepherd that pinned Royal Holloway back in their own half. The first try came in this period as Brighton stole in on the away line out and quick movement of the ball lead to Calum McNally, planting the ball over the try line.
Brighton soon extended their lead, as an early penalty on Royal Holloway’s five metre line was quickly taken by Nathan Hyde, who darted under the posts and gave the home side a bit of daylight on the scoreline.
As the second half begun Royal Holloway found some resistance…
The away side forced Brighton back into their own twenty-two at the beginning of the second half and managed to reduce the deficit to just three points. This came through some wonderful rugby from Holloway, mauling their way forward, keeping the ball with the forwards and rumbling the ball over the line.
Royal Holloway’s fight back wasn’t to last long though, as Brighton responded with an equally brilliant try of their own. This came through the individual quality of James McDonald. He found himself in space and made the burst of pace, breaking past a couple of challenges, selling a couple of dummies to the defence and accelerating towards the try line to put Brighton 15-7 ahead.
Although the away team continued to fight, UBRFC made the last, and most telling yank, pulling their opponents to the dust…
Royal Holloway gave themselves some hope in the final stages of the game by pulling back another try, but this was to no avail. The home team managed to earn themselves a penalty that had Brighton 18-14 ahead, and so it was to remain as a strong defence and tiring Holloway attack that ensured the three points for UBRFC.
http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/universityofbrightonrugbymens/
Written by Tom Roddy
The Verse
