Cinque Ports Rugby closely lose in our own international fixture

Cinque Ports Rugby 10 Les Barrons Verts (Switzerland) 15 (HT 0-10) played at Brighton RFC

When Cinque Ports proposed home cup game against the Chichester University was cancelled due to the students’ failure to field a team, a search was on to find suitable opposition. An unusual offer came via Brighton RFC. Cinque Ports were offered to play a Swiss Veterans team who were due to be playing a Brighton side who had also become unavailable due to their cup commitments. Cinque Ports never one to avoid a challenge accepted and made the journey down the A27. Fourteen Cinque Ports players made the trip, and were bolstered by a selection of Brighton players. Played under vets’ rules, the absence of kicking and contested scrums stripped Cinque Ports of some of their armoury and it became quickly apparent that the Swiss had one weapon- a devastating rolling maul. In the first quarter the Swiss controlled the ball, preventing the CPR from using their pacey backs. Steve Crump and Dale Whittington did take some possession forcing the touring side into crunching tackles, but the opposition made up largely of French players who had represented Switzerland at international level and captained by a Canadian who had represented Barbados internationally too avoided the wide open spaces and continually sucked the ball into their maul. From one of these mauls a blind side break resulted in the first try.
As per vets’ rules, no conversions were made. In the second quarter Cinque Ports raised the intensity, skipper Chris Eastwood looked to move the ball quickly and Steve Weale, Rob Fink, Phil Dempsey and Adam Bigg received plenty of ball but the back line could not pierce the solid Swiss defence. Again they looked to envelope the ball in their maul, and from another maul they scored a second try.
The third quarter saw a variety of Brighton Players inject a bit more pace into Les Barrons' back line but a tactical shift saw Dale Whittington and Steve Crump acting as battering rams to open up gaps in defence, the pacy Rob Fink took advantage of this sliding through a gap to release Adam Bigg to run home to score his first try. CPR were now dominant and again the Crump/Whittington combination delivered, Steve Crump punched the hole and Rob Fink again worked it out this time for Dale Whittington to run in the equaliser. A third try looked a certainty when a Brighton player representing the CPR broke free but seemed to lose his way and he was tackled as Chris Eastwood screamed for the ball.
The fourth quarter saw more of the same but the Les Barrons Verts seemed happier to allow some young Brighton Players the opportunity to run out for them and it was one of these players that run in the final try.
Coach Bill Langley said that the game was "exactly what we needed" and named Steve Crump and Dale Whittington as joint Cinque Ports Rugby men of the match. Manager Gavin Thomas echoed the head coaches views "That was proper social rugby, both sides played the game in the right spirit and I think after a couple of postponed games it was really useful to blow away the cobwebs before we return to league action"

Team: Crump, Thomas, Tritton, Giles, Dedman, Whittington, Butcher, Eastwood, Malthouse, Fink, Dempsey, Weale, Bigg, Waughman

Next Saturday we travel to play Shoreham II XV in a friendly, KO 2.30.