Hove 13 Sevenoaks 63
Last Saturday saw Oaks make the long trip to Hove for their toughest encounter to date of the fledgling season. By the time the final whistle was blown Oaks found themselves at the head of proceedings in London SE2 for the first time in nearly a decade and the only team in the league with three bonus point wins.
Oaks took to the paddock on a perfect autumnal afternoon, with minimal wind off the nearby shore and a large helping of seaside sunshine. The pitch at Hove boasts a significant gradient from one end to the other and Oaks skipper Robinson chose to play up the hill in the first half. Oaks registered the first score of the day through the effervescent Vaihu who powered through several would be tacklers to score under the black dot. Fly half Winter added the extras and registered a penalty to give Oaks an early 10-0 lead.
Oaks pushed hard for a second try to give them some breathing space but just as flanker Desmith was going to go over the line the final pass was intercepted by Hove who raced the length of the pitch to notch their only try of the day. Oaks soon made amends for this aberration by executing a well worked catch and drive that saw Man of The Match Desmith score the first of a brace for the flanker on the day. After a quick exchange of penalties the half time scoreboard saw Oaks leading by 20-13.
With the elements in the visitors favour and the Oaks pack beginning to dominate a victory for the Knole Paddock boys always looked likely from that point on. Despite having an excellent back line that threatened the visitors all day, Hove were unable to contain a relentless wave of Oaks attacks that saw a brace of tries from full back Streather and further scores from Winter, Tree, Saunders, Desmith and an absolute showstopper from Adams who rounded off a 14 man length of the pitch effort. With Winter kicking five from seven and Adams three from four the final score was 63-13 to the visitors.
After the match Coach Vaughan was sanguine mood, commenting ‘Today performance was excellent especially as were missing players. Hove are a much better side than the scoreline suggests and I am certain they will cause other teams a lot of problems. To have three bonus point wins at the start of the season has given everybody a real boost and we look forward to the next challenge which is Crowborough away on the 10th’.
Squad
1 Naismith
2 Browne
3 Power
4 Thorpe
5 Coleman
6 Swallow
7 Desmith
8 Robinson
9 Shirtcliff
10 Winter
11 Saunders
12 Vaihu
13 Unwin
14 Tree
15 Streather
16 Sedgewick
17 Walker
18 Adams