Cinque Ports 50 – 0 Eastbourne
h/t 24 - 0

Chris Eastwood v Eastbourne APR10

“We dominated from the start and never let the pressure drop. This was an efficient and impressive performance"

As the score suggests Cinque Ports were dominant from the start. Within minutes play was in the Eastbourne 22 and from a scrum Chris Eastwood shipped the ball out to Greg Stokes who took on the defence. From the resulting ruck Craig Barningham picked the ball up and drove for the line but was stopped just short and lost the ball to a good counter ruck by the Eastbourne defence. The ball was then kicked to touch for a Cinque Ports lineout. It carried on that way for the first 10 minutes with Cinque Ports attacking strongly against resolute defence by Eastbourne.  Something had to give, however, and from a Cinque Ports lineout Kevin Parker rose to take the ball, thrown in by Mark Wright, and delivered it to Eastwood who passed to Stokes. The ball went across the pitch stretching the defence and then a nice inside pass to Christiaan Brandt sent the South African through to score, converted by Carl Malthouse. This galvanized Eastbourne a bit they fought back only for the ball to be ripped and then kicked into their 22. Once again the forwards led by Rob Tritton and Tim Gough drive towards the line only to be held up again, Cinque Ports kept Eastbourne under the cosh with good support play  from the forwards and penetrating running from the backs. Another Cinque Ports try was inevitable and it came from a scrum tight on the left touch line, the ball came out to Stokes who popped it to Brandt coming through the gaps in the Eastbourne defence to touch down under the posts, converted by Malthouse.

There followed a period of scrappy play where Eastbourne managed to keep CPR at bay. The ball was kicked across the pitch into space where Stokes collected and passed to Michael Dangerfield who opened the tap and out ran two tacklers to score under the posts, converted once again by Malthouse. Steve Weale, who had been making his debut at flanker, was driven off the pitch landing on some cans, unfortunately he couldn’t carry on and was replaced by Nick Giles. The last action of the half was a Cinque Ports penalty for hands in the ruck by Eastbourne. Carl “Dead Eye” Malthouse made no mistake and the half time score was 24 – 0 to CPR.
 
Everyone expected Eastbourne to come out the traps running in the 2nd half, but it was soon evident that it was business as usual for CPR, who reasserted their authority and began to put Eastbourne under pressure again. From a 5m scrum Eastwood fed Stokes who passed to Lloyd Barthropp who darted over, Malthouse converted. The game was entertaining enough for CPR supporters but a bit of individual brilliance from Stokes made them even happier, when he read the play well and intercepted the ball and broke through. Unfortunately he was hauled down and the ball knocked forward in the tackle. It showed that CPR was just as determined as in the first half. This carried on when at a penalty in Eastbourne’s 22 Eastwood tapped quickly drew his man and popped to Dale Whittington to cross the line. Again Malthouse was on target. The next Cinque Ports score came from loose play when Luke Price and Craig Barningham chased down and took charge of the ball to provide the platform for Rob Tritton to Force his way to the line only to be stopped short. From the recycle Eastwood scored a nice sniping try. Unfortunately Malthouse was unsuccessful for the first time in the match. The last score came when Lloyd Waughman grubber kicked through for supporting players to chase. Eastwood touched down and Malthouse converted. Eastbourne to their credit didn’t give up and staged a massive fight back, camped in Cinque Ports half for the last 5 minutes, only denied by desperate defence. When the ball was knocked loose in a tackle Mark Wright kicked it out of play to end the match, Cinque Ports 50 Eastbourne 0.

Coach Bill Langley said “We dominated from the start and never let the pressure drop. This was an efficient and impressive performance against a team that has won 7 out of 8 of its last games. We have two more league game (against East Grinstead and Bognor) and if we play as we did today both teams will get quite a shock”.

Man of the match was predictably almost impossible but after a lot of thought it went to Dale Whittington who was involved in every thing that happened on the pitch.  Normally a special mention would be given to players who had made significant contributions to the match, but it would be impossible to single out anyone, it was a true team effort.