Sunday 27th January 2008 Beccehamian 51 - 0 Brighton It doesn't come much better than this. A glorious day, a picture book setting, an hour extra in bed (late KO) and the prospect of a tough game against the team at the top of the Sussex league. Unfortunately Brighton were missing two or three County players but even at full strength they would have struggled with Beccs on this form. Brighton lived up to their reputation of a tough, aggressive side and tackled hard all afternoon. They had the tallest player we have ever faced who posed a new set of problems. The first half was a bit feisty with one or two silly and uneccesary exchanges between both teams. Eventually the ref got fed up telling boys to calm down and reached for his yellow card, dispatching a player from each team to the bin. Paul Broadhurst thus gets the dubious honour of the teams first yellow card! It had the desired effect and the game settled down. It is always easy to blame the opposition on days like this but we must learn to keep our discipline, and our mouths shut! Back to the rugby, much of which was the best we have played all season. The forwards had the better of the scrums and disrupted much of Brighton's ball at line out time. Ball from ruck and maul was generally quick which gave the backs plenty to run onto. Jack Robertson and Charlie Phair had strong games but were again guilty at times of overlooking team-mates. When they did throw it out the backs looked awesome, the try of the game coming in the second half with some great interplay in the forwards followed by quick, accurate hands in the backs that put Mark Boyle in the corner. Liam Melville showed a lot of potential in a rare outing at full back and Angus Peters had a strong game on the left wing, scoring a fine try but losing possession over the line on two occasions thus denying himself a hat-trick. Sam Jeral scored a typical try and Jack Murtagh was held up over the line to end the first half 29-0 up. One of the highlights of the day was the Beccs defence and their determination to keep another clean sheet. The tackles were hard and the support was nearly always there. Another plus is the strength of the bench - four players came on during the game without any let up in ability or intensity. Harry Trype scored a good team try as players swarmed after a kick ahead, the full back was caught and robbed under the posts and quick hands put Harry in. Not to be out done, Jack grabbed three tries and Charlie a brace. There are still many areas on which to improve but today was one to savour so we will leave the criticism to the training field. Well done to all. Robbie