Dazzling H&B brush aside Seaford

Aside from a short period before the break, and a sustained 15-minute attacking effort by the visitors midway through the second half, H&B put on a fine team display of dazzling ball movement, great support play, and dynamism around the tackle area, that left Seaford's brave defence struggling to cope.

After an untidy start, the opening try 10 minutes into the game began with a powerful, mazy run through dense traffic by Tom Brampton, then from the breakdown fast hands to Kris Dempster, who made good yards down the right and flicked it back inside for Kit Claughton to gather and score.

A break from a quick tap penalty by Piers Claughton saw more good hands to Jimmy Adams, who collected his own neat grubber and popped it to Brampton, who ran in for the first of his four tries, converted by Paul Sandeman for a 12-0 lead.

Tristan Todd caught the ensuing restart kick, made good yards up the middle, and from the subsequent ruck a darting break by Piers Claughton in and out of the defence and a pass to Brampton saw the latter race in for his second score.

Five minutes later Kit Claughton handed off his opposite number in Seaford's 22, drew the wing and passed to Brampton, who again showed his clinical finishing ability for his third try, leaving the half time score 22-0.

Moments into the second half Brampton brilliantly fielded a difficult kick at full stretch, fed Adams who made good ground and fed Kit Claughton, whose huge miss-pass to Sandeman and on to Ben Campbell, saw the wing round his man for a beautifully executed score.

A couple of minutes later Todd made a bullocking charge into Seaford's 22, slipped the ball to Piers Claughton who stepped, hit and spun, and off-loaded to Andrew Hitch who drove over the line, Sandeman converting.

The next score was one for the forwards, whose work-rate, handling skills and awareness have been getting better and better all season. Another well-worked line-out, accurately thrown in by Ben Davies and athletically caught by Neil Redman, saw a copybook drive to the line, with George Cullingford breaking off the back for the touchdown.

For the next quarter of an hour, Seaford rallied bravely, led by their classy number 8 and effective number 6, and threw everything at H&B. But despite a series of penalties in the hosts' 22, and a number of determined assaults on their tryline - including a three-man overlap wasted thanks to Campbell's aggressive drift defence - Seaford could not breach H&B's dynamic defence.

H&B eventually recovered their attacking momentum, and from a scrum close to the Seaford line Piers Claughton spun the ball to his brother who crashed through the defence to restart the scoring.

With minutes to go, a well-rehearsed backs move from a line-out saw another copybook try - his fourth - run in by man-of-the-match Brampton.

Sandeman completed H&B's day's work, powerfully finishing off yet another good running and handling move, for a 54-0 final score.

"I'm very pleased with that performance," said chief coach Roger Stanley. "We just had too much continuity for them.

"I expected rustiness, but apart from a couple of patches both halves it was very good. The support play was excellent, and we were sharp around the tackle areas."