Lewes Maintain Unbeaten Run

Lewes's fine unbeaten start to the season continued at Chichester on Saturday as they overwhelmed the hosts to pull off their third straight bonus-point win. From the start, Lewes dominated play and it took them only 4 minutes to open the scoring when, following a rolling maul, Player-Coach No. 8 Mike Stubbs touched down under the posts, the conversion from Nick Sharp seeing the visitors open up an early 0 - 7 lead. But only 2 minutes later, a well-worked move down the right from Chichester, aided by some sloppy Lewes defence, saw the hosts pull back to 5 - 7 with a unconverted try from their No.11.
The next quarter saw Chichester come back into the game as Lewes - seeming somewhat complacent at times, and making a series of unforced errors - went off the boil.But just before half-time, they got their act back together with a good scrum, driving the pack into Chichester's 22 metre zone, ending with centre Billy Shiel scoring near the posts, Sharp's conversion seeing his side go into the break 5 - 14 to the good.
The second half saw Lewes pull away, forcing Chichester to defend inside their own half for long periods. This pressure paid off after 50 minutes with Stubb's bustling second try, and although the conversion went wide, Lewes increased their advantage to 5 - 19. This stretched to 5 - 26 some 5 minutes later, Shiel scoring his second - and Lewes's bonus-point - try with Sharp adding the extras.
On 64 minutes, the visitors won good ruck ball on half-way, enabling second-row Jack Nayler - a former Lewes Colts winger! - to pick up the ball and sprint fully 50 metres for a fine, but unconverted, try to make it 5 - 31, followed only 3 minutes later with a scintillating attack rounded off with a great try by replacement right-wing Tom Petty, Sharp slotting over the conversion to see Lewes go further ahead at 5 - 38.Lewes finished the game with Shiel's hat-trick try, Sharp kicking over to complete a deserved victory by 5 - 45.

Although not a try scorer, Man-of-the Match was flanker Matt Blunt, whose display in both defence and attack was exemplary.

This win pushes Lewes up to second place in the League, only 1 point behind the leaders but with a game in hand - home to local rivals Seaford on Saturday, k.o. 2.00pm. at the Stanley Turner Ground.

After the match, Player-Coach Stubbs commented: "Although opening with an early try, we then went into a phase of haphazard play which saw us concede 5 points. So we reverted to basics to get back into the game, and controlled the second half as a result. But we need to improve for the games to come if we are to maintain our current run of success."

Lewes 2nd' suffered their first defeat of the season with a 7 - 22 home loss against a strong Newick 1st XV.

Sunday's results were as follows:

Ladies v Canterbury (H) 14-28 LOSS
Colts v Crawley (H) 0-43 LOSS
U15s v Edenbridge (A) 19-21 WIN
U13s v Haywards Heath (H) 27-12 WIN