SPIRITED PERFORMANCE AGAINST THE ODDS

In front of their biggest crowd of the season, Lewes put up their best display of the season against promotion-certainties Aylesford Bulls but - in spite of leading at the half-time break - eventually succumbed at the last due in large part to a series of penalties against them and some mysterious, if not bizarre, refereeing decisions.
The early pressure was from the home side and they opened the scoring after only 5 minutes with a great move down the right flank, finished off by outside-centre Will Feltham in the corner, outside-half Jon Pitts kicking a fine conversion to see the scoreboard read
7 - 0. Ten minutes later, a penalty to Lewes following another spell of attacking play was slotted over by Pitts to extend the lead to 10 - 0.
The visitors then hit back, forcing their way deep into Lewes territory and gaining a penalty themselves after 24 minutes, kicked over by their full-back, D. Cornerford, to make it
10 - 3. But 3 minutes later, Lewes scored their second try with a counter-attack from within their own 22 metre area which ended with right-winger Billy Shiell scoring out wide for a great, but unconverted, try to go ahead at 15 - 3. A few minutes later, Lewes appeared to have touched down for another try, but it was not given by the referee who, although some distance from play, considered that the ball had not been grounded properly. Five minutes from half-time, this entertaining match continued to offer exciting rugby between 2 evenly-balanced team but it was Aylesford who scored the last points of the half, Lewes losing vital possession which resulted in an unconverted try by their right-winger, E. Wood to go in only 15 - 8 down.
This proved to be the turning point of the match as Aylesford began to dominate possession and territory in the second half which, aided by a penalty-count in their favour, enabled them to prevent Lewes from adding to their points. Aylesford attacked from the re-start and in spite of an obvious forward-pass, were allowed to play on to score an unconverted try in the left-corner form their flanker, S. Proctor, to pull closer at 15 - 13. They finally took the lead 15 - 18 for the first time after 59 minutes with another, unconverted, try in the right corner from Cornerford, and continued to come more into the ascendant with their powerful pack feeding regular ball to their backs.
Lewes's defence eventually cracked some 10 minutes from the final whistle when Aylesford scored their fourth, bonus-point, try via Cornerfod, his conversion seeing them pull away at 15 - 25.
There then followed the most controversial moment of the match, which effectively denied Lewes a losing bonus-point: - with only 5 minutes to go, and with Lewes embarking on a series of attacks to the visitors' line, they managed to work an overlap on the right for
No. 8 Luke Robinson to run the remaining few metres for what looked like a certain try, there being no defender in his way. However, he was then high-tackled by Ayelsford's full-back who had raced across the field, which denied Lewes the points and, although the offending player was sin-binned for the foul, for some inexplicable reason the referee refused to award Lewes a penalty try which would have put them within touching-distance.
This otherwise fine game of rugby ended with Aylesford continuing to attack while Lewes held them out with sterling defence, even managing to embark upon some exciting counter-attacks of their own, but all to no avail.
After the match Head Coach Chris Roberts commented:

"I am immensely proud of the side today. It has been an up and down 2018 but this was a top notch performance. The clubhouse was rocking before the game and the support on the touchline was huge! The team showed great composure and execution, however we were also really physical at the breakdown, which is something we have been working on in training. There were several massive calls from the ref, which did not go our way but we must remember that he is a volunteer and doing the best he can. I selected a squad who I knew would play for the club and their teammates. They did this brilliantly! "

Lewes: Raynor, Warren, Williams, Evans, Blunt, Capon, Furse (Capt.), Robinson, Taylor, Pitts, Roberts, Wade, Feltham, Shiell, Veasey. (Reps., all used: Bacha, Jolley, Furlong).

Lewes 1st's are without a game this Easter weekend, their next match being a Sussex League tussle on 7th.April away to Hastings and Bexhill, k.o. 3.00-pm

Lewes 2nd's maintained their promotion push with a crushing 40 - 5 victory at St. Francis with tries from Owen Jones (3), Jacob Bishop. Caolan Quinn and Tom Petty, with 5 conversions from Josh Farr.