Despite playing into a strong wind, Lewes were dominant in the opening half hour of this game with league leaders Eastbourne. They had a try disallowed and various other attacking opportunities came to nothing, while they were also frustrated that when Eastbourne did manage to get hold of the ball, they were able to clear it well down field.

A calm presence at full back in Will Feltham gave Lewes a big advantage here, as he didn’t kick the ball away wastefully, but ran it back and gained support in building attacks from deep. Despite Lewes’ advantage in terms of both territory and possession, Eastbourne were provided with a golden opportunity to take the lead when they had a penalty kick at goal. Somehow this chance was wasted and they never looked like scoring again,

The breakthrough for Lewes came just before half time, when their attack eventually managed to open up holes in the Eastbourne defence, and the sight of Kane Dadswell storming through one of these was a joy to behold for the Lewes supporters. Gus Taylor converted this try to give Lewes a 7-0 lead at the interval.

Turning round to play with the wind towards the clubhouse should have given Lewes a decisive advantage, and shortly into the second half, Will Cross went over to record his first league try for Lewes. However, another disallowed try and a yellow card turned the tide against Lewes, but Ed King, typically, was not going to let a little thing like playing with fourteen men stop him as he bulldozed through the helpless defenders to score a try that Gus Taylor converted to make the score 19-0.

Straightaway the tide turned further against Lewes as another yellow card from the restart took them down to thirteen men. Fortunately, there was enough front row cover to prevent uncontested scrums being called, as this would have reduced Lewes to twelve players. But what transpired was no less than a heroic defensive effort that kept Eastbourne well and truly at bay despite being a couple of players down.

Once the team got back to its full complement of players there was a chance for Lewes to have a go at acquiring a fourth bonus point try that had been denied earlier in the game. But it was not to be, though the pressure Lewes exerted was seen in the last play when Eastbourne were happy to knock the ball into touch to end the game and accept the defeat.

There were some great performances from the Lewes team, but mention must be made of Tom Moore who made a great league debut at scrum half. In fact, the coaches were hard pressed afterwards to name a man of the match as everyone in the team had played so well. This fourth win on the bounce leaves Lewes in fourth place in the table. But we are now only seven points behind leaders Eastbourne with two games in hand.

Lewes team: Feltham; Littlewood, Green, Moule, Yeates; Taylor, Moore; Dadswell, Martin, Norman; Sale (captain), King; Coe, Weston, Pryor. Replacements: Pye, Gage, Cross, Rourke, Reid.

The next League game will be away at Horsham Barbarians on Saturday 2nd March. That evening we are honoured to welcome sixteen intrepid cyclists from the Doddie Weir Challenge and their support team to our club. They will have left Edinburgh on February 28th and rode via Dublin, Cardiff, and Twickenham - on their way to Paris and then Rome.

So we will be having a celebration and fundraising dinner for the My Name’s Doddie Foundation, researching a cure for Motor Neurone Disease, in their honour. The evening will have a Scottish theme and include a two-course dinner, a welcome reception for the cyclists (including a piper) and a Q&A with the team when they arrive. We’d love to see you there! Contact Paddy – chairman@lewesrugby.com - to reserve your place at this unique event.