On a brilliant September afternoon, Lewes started their season with a convincing 42-5 win over a resilient Horsham 2s team. With The World Cup and various alterations in fixtures this was the first real contest of the season for this young and developing Lewes team.

Horsham kicked off down the slope and from the first minute Lewes showed their intent to ‘play rugby’ and keep the ball alive. After five minutes, from a counter attack move, Joe Terry sprinted down the line and with some great footwork scored in the corner.

The next 20 minutes was all about the sides finding their rhythm and too frequently both sides made unforced errors or just tried to do too much with the ball. Scrums were coming thick and fast and from a dominant Lewes scrum new player/coach Mike Stubbs scored a try with a very strong dynamic pick up from number 8. (10-0)

For the rest of the first half Lewes were trying to run the ball from all over the park and too often their attacks were thwarted by a determined Horsham defence or they just tried to offload once too often. The half ended with another dynamic run from the 22 from Stubbs, who scored under the posts. (15-0)

The half time talk was all about being patient, not trying to score from first phase and establishing the space from structured play.

Straight from the kick off, Lewes began to develop some structure and gained the bonus point after a try from Will Tobin who straightened the line after a series of phases. This marked the time for Lewes to ring the changes with all the subs being used and players altering position.

The dominant feature of the game had been the Lewes scrum that had produced top quality ball all day. Lewes scored another four tries in the last 20 minutes with Stubbs gaining his hatrick, another from Will Tobin and one apiece from George Dean (back after two years from injury) and Jack Cullinane. (40-0). Joe Terry at last completed a conversion after playing the crossbar challenge all afternoon.

Horsham continued to defend with great resilience and were reward with an interception try in the last couple of minutes to produce a final score of 42-5.

This was a very good performance considering the side has never played together before and have not had a contact game since August. Next week will be a completely different challenge against Crawley who scored 60 points to make it two out of two.

See Danny Simpson's pictures of the match in the photos section

Report by Nigel Baker