Sussex "Canterbury Jack" Intermediate League

St Francis 12 Hove Volunteers 10

 A cold wintery afternoon at Southgate playing fields greeted the players for this top half of the table clash on Saturday. The plain black strip of Hove coupled with the dark blue of Saints adding to the bleakness of the grey February day. Although Volunteers are Hove's fourth team they sit three league places above their third team who play in the same division and beat St Francis by nine points down on the south coast earlier in the season. Their full complement of replacements and enough travelling spectators to outnumber the St Francis faithful demonstrated that they are a well organised club and this was to be a tough full-blooded encounter.

 The St Francis team showed four changes and a positional change from the side which started against Newick last week. The first ten minutes contained some strong runs and equally powerful tackles as the two teams, old adversaries who were promoted together from Sussex Two (west) last season,  sounded each other out. Dave Callan set up Saints first scoring opportunity when he caught a misplaced Hove clearance kick goalkeeper style above his head and drove into the Hove forwards. Hove hands in the resulting ruck presented Shane Kenny with a kickable penalty opportunity from twenty metres. Kenny's kick narrowly missed the uprights but his clever kicks from hand kept St Francis on the offensive, as they have done so often this season. The Saints players showed good hands in open play and a willingness to support their team mates while the Hove players were often isolated in their attempts to push play into the Saints half.

 After fifteen minutes a good break from the back of a scrum by number eight Dave Miles saw him switch with winger Alper Aydin as Saints continued to threaten the Hove line. Further pressure saw Hove forced to kick to touch from behind their own line. At the second attempt Saints were able to secure the ball and roll the maul in-field towards the posts. This created a gap in the Hove defence on the blind side which experienced scrum half Alan McArdle was able to exploit to the full before expertly drawing his opposing man and passing to Dave Callan, who was able to touch down in the corner unopposed. This try stung Hove into action and they quickly made their way down the pitch before a dummy by Hove fly-half Sam Howse saw the Saints defence part like the Red Sea and Howse was able to sprint twenty metres to the try-line without so much as a hint of a defensive tackle. Hove were now in the ascendancy and Howse attempted a long range drop-goal which would have put his side in front if it had gone between the posts. Saints hit back with a long punt for the corner which would have seen the speedy Aydin collect the ball and dash into the corner if the bounce had been in his favour. Saints finished the half on the attack as a loose ball was collected by Paul Smith and his pass to Dan Williams saw him sprint for the line before he was tackled fifteen metres out. As the half-time whistle blew the score was locked at 5-5.

 Saints made a bright start to the second half as they caught their own kick off and good marauding by Miles kept play in Hove's twenty-two. Good play by Smith say the ball move along the line where first Adie Perry and then mobile prop Will Arney ran the ball at their opponents like backs before the ball hit the floor as it reached Williams, to the obvious frustration of all parties. Saints were now very much on top and, after several recycles of the ball through the forwards, centre Murray Stephenson found a gap in the Hove defence and broke through before finding Alper Aydin, who finished his try near the posts with a swallow dive of which Shefki Kuqi would have been proud !  Kenny added the conversion and Saints were in the lead by 12-5 with twenty five minutes to play.

 Both sides showed adventure in the second half, willing to run the ball from all areas of the field. While the play was littered with mistakes it made for an entertaining spectacle. Shannon Millard and Dave Miles were often in the thick of the battle, using their strength and determination to push the play forward. Saints scrummage had the upper hand throughout although their line-out was again a cause for concern. An attack from distance by Hove saw Paul Southgate break through to score a try. The resulting conversion was missed and with the St Francis leading 12-10 a nail-biting last fifteen minutes was in prospect. During the second half St Francis replaced Adie Perry with Matt Bender, Dave Callan with new signing Jack Norrie (who I earlier mistook for a Hove replacement and asked him for the name of the Hove fly-half ! ) and Shaun Baulk with Matt Parish.

 Saints had an opportunity for a pushover try towards the end which their forwards deserved, but Dave Miles was penalised by the referee for a double movement as he grounded the ball. Although Hove had time for one last attack the ball went loose in Saints twenty-two and Miles gleefully punted the ball to touch knowing that the referee's whistle would sound to signal a Saints victory. This hard-fought victory keeps Saints looking upwards to the summit of the Intermediate league. With nine league games still to play this season promotion to Sussex Division 1 remains a possibility.

 Team - McGahan, Perry, Arney, Trevaskis, Callan, Page, Millard, Miles, McArdle, Kenny, Williams, Smith, Stephenson, Aydin, Baulk, Bender, Norrie, Parish.

Please have a look in this week's Crawley News as they had a photographer at the game.

Special mention must be made of Brendan Mallet, who didn't play in Saturday's game but asked me why his name hadn't appeared in last week's match report in the bar during the Midnight Howlers charity concert . Unfortunately, Brendan, this bit won't be in the papers !