Sussex U20   0 - 19   Essex U20
 h/t  0 - 5

Sussex U20 played their final group fixture on Sunday 7th of March v Essex @ Horsham RFC

Hopes of having the strongest team of the season against Essex were dented with the postponement of the original fixture the week before making some players unavailable for the re-arranged date and the withdrawal of several key players due to injury picked up on Saturday playing for their club sides ; Gleave , Renwick ,Wilson, Hoare , Maslen and Gray would all have been strong divisional contenders but none were to play.

Gray as skipper was sidelined for a second match through a hamstring injury and so once again the armband was passed Jake Joyce.

Given the changes Sussex took the field with a solid looking pack and some dangerous backs , playing the first half against a significant wind.

Indeed even against the elements Sussex held the territorial and possesional battle with the forwards going very well with the front row of  Mahoney Salvage & Watkins  (on for Townsend who was injured within five minutes having played the full 80 for Heath the previous day) driving the Essex front row back and applying pressure at virtually every scrum.
The lineout was well contested with the very tall King supplying banker ball for Essex but Lowe moving around and Pitchford at the front gave enough good ball for the backs to work with.

Joyce led from the front and continually got to the break down first fighting a lone battle at the breakdown to turn over several Essex attacks.Sussex had some good ball and decent territory but could not really unlock the Essex defence with only the powerful Ryle at 13 causing any alarm bells with his long stride taking him away from the defenders grasp and briefly threatening the Essex line.

With 35 of the half gone it was still nil nil another good attacking Sussex position broke down and a howitzer clearance aided by the tail wind pushed the hoops back to 5 from their own line. Having had very little attacking ball Essex stole the vital lineout and with good mauling technique drove over to score HT 0-5.

It was a  tough break but good sides take their chances ; however the half time chat was pretty positive against the wind the blues had dominated and 0-5 didn’t seem a big ask in the conditions.

Having battled so well in the first half and hoping the wind would aide their cause Sussex were perhaps guilty of taking their foot of the pedal as within minutes of the re-start Sonny Gay the outstanding player on the park stepped and gassed away from the defence to score the killer try out wide as if the rub salt into the wound the kicker slotted the touchline kick with a difficult cross wind 0-12

The blues responded once more with Pitchford in the heart of the action with Joyce winning the 50:50 balls : Lowe carrying across the gainline and indeed Robertshaw and Perry at nine got into the action both turning over Essex ball.

Perry who had a very assured game at scrum half released the backs with Golds going on several jinking runs and Ryle was again powering forward causing Essex big problems ; but again as the side with better form they dug in ; good scrambling defence held several Sussex attacks inchs short and eventually Essex cleared their lines.

With ten to go Essex finally put the game out of reach with once again some evasive class running from Gay to cut open the midfield to put a somewhat unreflective 0-17 score line.
The blues put plenty of heart into the contest and on the stats chart probably had the better of the match ; but stats don’t always show form and the one genuine class player. Essex played with excellent team spirit and defended well under pressure ; they have a good lineout jumper and very abrasive number 8 ; overstepping the mark on a couple of occasions but he made life difficult for the blues.

Essex finished runners up in the group and will now play Hants in the finals day , we wish them luck.

Middlesex will play Surrey in the main final.

A tough year, two long away trips , player injury and unavailability but there are several positives ; against Middlesex we were really in the match and played some excellent rugby and against Essex we were more than comptetive.Alonside the fact that we have had to play a very young squad who hopefully will all be available next year.
We will be in touch with all the 20s eligible squad at the beginning of next season.

Meanwhile we have had several payers graded for Divisional and we will announce any that have been successful in making the London & SE training squad to play the Midlands in May

Paul Colley Lead Coach /Manager