Shoreham maintain 100% start

A much changed Shoreham side travelled to Holbrook for their first away game of the season. Shoreham made 6 changes to the starting side that beat Sussex police a week ago, but the quality of the players coming in meant that there was no drop off due to injuries.

Shoreham won the toss and elected to start working up the slope on an uneven pitch. Despite this it was the visitors that started stronger. Building phases well and kicking into space to keep Holbrook under pressure. Holbrook delt with Shoreham's pressure well, with both sides conceding penalties and territory, in what started and remained a tense and well contested game.

It was Holbrook who struck first, after missing 2 earlier attempts at goal, a well worked set piece from a scrum inside Shoreham's half allowed holbrooks fly half to break through the back line and create a two on one with Shoreham's fullback adam shaw, as he home sides winger ran in under the posts. The conversion successful as the hosts took the lead 7-0.

The game continued to be even in terms of possession and territory, as Shoreham started to create some momentum from solid line outs and driving mauls, setting up a good platform to attack for the Shoreham back line who looked dangerous on open play. Shoreham's pressure was rewarded as Shoreham won a penalty just outside of the Holbrook 22, the kick taken well by Adam Shaw as Shoreham pulled back the score to 7-3.

From here Shoreham began to build a bit of pressure as Holbrook gave away a couple of penalties and found themselves defending on the back foot. Just as Holbrook managed to turn the ball over a good tackle from Lance Tufft forced a knock on and Shoreham got the ball back. From the resulting scrum Shoreham's backs broke the defensive line centre Barry Trimm showing his experience and skill by drawing the last defender and the chasing backs before a delivering a perfectly weighted kick chased by Billy Wright and Adam Shaw, with Shaw diving on the ball first to score Shoreham's first try in the corner. He then converted his own try to make the score 7-10 to the visitors. As the half came to a close, Shoreham tested the Holbrook defence again but the home team remained strong, half time Holbrook 7-10 Shoreham.

The second half proved to be as even as the first, Holbrook starting the brighter of the 2 sides. The Shoreham pack continued to deny their opponents clean ball from set pieces as they have done as season, as Shoreham's back line put in 2 or 3 try saving tackles. Shoreham continued to defend their line before eventually winning the penalty for holding on and clearing their lines. Going into the last quarter of the game Shoreham strung several phases together, with the ball taken on well by Iain Morrison and Harry Rae in particular. As the ball was spun out to fly half Bryn Phillips and about the half way line he spotted a mismatch in front of him in the shape of two front rows. Phillips used his pace to get in between the defence and forced Holbrook into a scramble, as Phillips was tackled by the fullback he managed to get away the offload from the ground to Daegan Beaumont, who carried the ball a further 10 metres before offloading out of the tackle to substitute Ben French, who managed to drive over from 5 metres out to score an important try on his debut. Shaw was again successful with the conversion making the score 7-17.

As the game entered the last ten minutes Shoreham defended brilliantly and didn't give Holbrook a chance to get back into the game, kicking well into the corner and disrupting the home side's line out, making it difficult for the hosts to build an attacking platform.

Full time Holbrook 7-17 Shoreham

Shoreham: Morrison, Tufft, Pierce, Hobden, Rae, Cannell, Beaumont, M.Shaw, Reed, Phillips, Wright, Trimm, Eyre-Walker, Goater, A.Shaw. Subs (all used) Lewis, French, Evans, O'Connor.

Man of the match: Bryn Phillips.
Notable performances: Iain Morrison, Paul Eyre-walker, Barry Trimm, Ben French.