They may have looked less technically proficient in some areas than some of their rivals but to beat Eastbourne, Haywards Heath and draw with Heathfield in a game they should have won was a huge step forward from last year. Not only did they have an exciting back line with brilliant strike runners and centres and half-backs with soft hands but they had a hard-core set of forwards who are only going to get better.

With Freddy Mouland, Callum McDermott, Jack Davidian-Judd, Todd Blackburn and Toby Greenwood, Lewes had an unbeatable scrum and five genuine line-breaking ball-carriers. Mouland, as captain and Most Improved Player of the Day was awesome in attack and showed how his fitness is improving by playing pretty much all of the tournament. He loves to pass but will be encouraged him to strike fear into the opposition more by going into contact like his human bulldozer front-row colleague McDermott does. The number of times McDermott seemed to be wrapped up in a maul to suddenly re-emerge and carry on blasting through was incredible. Davidian-Judd was given the starting responsibility for the first time in the key position of hooker and he took it with both hands. He is a ball-playing number two who showed for the first time a bit of edge in the rucks and mauls. The best hookers – Brian Moore, Sean Fitzpatrick, Keith Wood, Raphael Ibanez – all had a bit of mischief about them as well as immense skills and there were signs that Davidian-Judd has that in him. Blackburn and Greenwood look like they’ve always played together. Blackburn has always been Lewes' hardest running forward and Greenwood, though new to the game, looks like he’s out of the same mould. Sam Yeomans, Lewis Henry and Ollie Smith showed themselves as good supporting forwards who will be better for the experience and should make serious progress this year. Henry has only just started and this was his first game as a forward but he fitted in well. Yeomans put in some good tackles and his secure handling is unrecognisable from last year. Smith has just returned from injury and he will start to push Davidian-Judd which is just what we want, especially from two such good mates! And, waiting in the wings is Lewes' rocket-propelled grenade, Findley Tucknott, who was unavailable this week. Lewes' worried that the loss of Zeph Mulligan and Jack Taylor might fatally weaken them up front but the squad just pushed the next in line to the fore.

With Matt Scates and Dan Billin in charge of the backline Lewes had two naturally expansive playmakers. The gameplan was to concentrate on attacking one wing, preferably the right, in order to tie up the defence and then swing the ball left. The result? Versus Eastbourne (score 15-5 to Lewes) Blackburn and McDermott scored on the left wing and then there was the inevitable Brandon Hayes interception try (a "Brandon Special") on the right as Eastbourne tried to break out from their line.

Against Haywards Heath, Louis Barron should have scored on the left but had a foot in touch just short of the line and there was another Brandon Special on the right (result 5-0 to Lewes). Against Heathfield, Lewes had a scrum and attacked the left. After the first tackle, Billin coolly switched play to the right and Mouland scored in the corner. In the second half, Lewes took the lead from a penalty which Hayes kicked into a bit of space just in front of the middle of Heathfield's tryline which was brilliantly followed up Barron and Tom Coomber who hassled the receivers so well that they coughed up a panicky pass which Hayes once again intercepted to score and seal his award as Player of the Day. It was only shaky central defence against the small but brilliant Heathfield scrum-half who twice ran sideways and evaded all Lewes' defenders to touch down that resulted in a final score of 10-10.

Warlingham proved to be a game too far with some big tough forwards and Lewes' energy levels dropping. Nonetheless Lewes finished the first half only 5-10 down with McDermott this time scoring on the right extremity. Barron at scrum-half looked to take it on himself a little too often although he would have scored if he had dived for the line instead of trying to place it down. In the second half Warlingham ran away with it with a final score of 25-5 to them.

Lewes introduced two new wings to the tournament in Sam McDonald and Jasper Baker and they both pulled off excellent tackles against opponents twice their size to stop try-scoring runs. Alfie Winter and Luke Farnes in the centres defended reasonably well but they know they can and will do better and they are developing a good understanding in attack. Winter is more what the Kiwis call a second five-eighth and Farnes is more the direct crash-ball centre. Speaking of which, Mitch Perks came back from an arm broken over the summer looking like he’d never been away with some great runs in the centre. Once he gets his full running fitness back and learns to offload in the tackle earlier, he will be chasing Farnes for his spot. As often as not, Coomber features heavily in these reports. The fact that he has not as yet is not because he did anything wrong. Indeed he was typically solid in defence, dangerous on the wing and defensively brilliant at fly-half. It was more that he has inspired others around him to try to match his deeds and take some of the workload off his shoulders.

This, then, was a great team performance. The team had clearly thought about their roles and played their parts so that the team benefited. The superb team spirit (one warm-up involved a mass game of rock, paper, scissors) means there are no prima donnas and there are notable things to say about everyone. The one time the coach, Peter Barron, felt it necessary to give them a bit of a wake-up call at half-time in the Haywards Heath match, they responded brilliantly.