Eastbourne RFC's Under 14s take part in Harlequins festival

The festival was established by Sussex RFU and Harlequins FC to provide an opportunity for aspiring rugby players to perform in a natural environment, with their own clubs as part of the assessment and identification process for the Harlequins FC and County Developing Player Programme (DPP).

In typical British fashion, the weather forecast promised 100% chance of rain, all day. Thankfully, again in British fashion, the weather forecast was wrong. The day started with heavy rain for the first hour of the tournament, then we were blessed with stunning autumnal sunshine. Perfect rugby weather!

Eastbourne U14 ended their 21/22 season by just missing promotion into the top pool of the Sussex RFU waterfall league. The team regrouped in preseason-training and coaches and players alike agreed on their strategy and individual and collective performance goals for the 22/23 season. High on that list was a positive, strong and comprehensive performance at the festival.

The first game at the tournament saw Eastbourne facing Reigate, Cup winners of the Surrey 2021 Waterfall league.

Eastbourne immediately put into play their game-plan for fast-flowing, expansive rugby.

From the kick off, the team chased, harried and tackled, putting up a ferocious and devastating phase of pay that Reigate could not cope with.

Dominance in the scrum and ruck provided a stable platform for the Eastbourne backs to capitalise on. The game concluded with Eastbourne running in 3 tries with no response from Reigate.

The second game against Hove was a clinical demonstration of Eastbourne power and free-flowing rugby. Warner, captain and scrum half, gave a true captain’s performance with strong running and decisive breaks from the back of the scrum.

A slick off-load to Hawthorn allowed the winger to run in the first try from 30 metres, fending off 3 Hove defenders in the process. The build-up leading to the second try, started in the Eastbourne 22, clean ball from the scrum on the left touchline, fly half Perks, received a pass from Warner, before cutting in and then straightening his running line.

The ball went through hands, with Bressard breaking from centre, drawing the Hove defenders before a perfectly timed pass to release Phillipson for a clear 50 metre sprint down the right touchline for a try. The next two tries demonstrated the overall composure and strength of the Eastbourne team. Flanker Hewit took an inside pass from Warner and ran in from 30 metres to score in the corner. This was followed by a similar try from Swanepoel at number 8, running through the Hove defensive line before touching down under the posts. The backs were not to be outdone, in the second half, Bressard ran down the left wing chased by 2 defenders, stepped inside, and reached for the try line. The next try came from another strong break from Warner who offloaded to Bressard. Bressard faked a dummy to Hawthorn on the wing and cut back inside for a clear run to the try line. Warner and Hewitt added their names again to the scoresheet. The game ended 50-0 with Eastbourne yet to concede a try.

Horsham were the next team to face an Eastbourne team, that spectators were already commenting were the team to beat.

Whilst Horsham put up a spirited defence against Eastbourne, there were simply no match for the well-drilled Eastbourne team. Powerful drives in the scrum, some excellent demonstration of technical rucking and instinctive line breaks proved overwhelming for Horsham and Eastbourne ran out winners of this game 15-0, once again keeping a clean sheet.

Eastbourne’s final game was against Brighton, who were also unbeaten at that point in the festival. Brighton proved a tougher opponent, with an incredibly strong pack who gave as good as they got from Eastbourne.

Eastbourne’s strategy to nullify the threat from the strong Brighton pack proved to be effective. With strong Eastbourne defensive attritional tackling, Brighton struggled to make any headway into the Eastbourne half. The Brighton backs proved no match to the Eastbourne backs and the war of attrition was eventually settled with 2 Eastbourne tries coming from breaks through the Brighton defences. Eastbourne’s defences remained intact and for the fourth game in the festival, they retained a clean sheet.

The Team face East Grinstead away in their first league game of the season on the 9th October, and two weeks after this game, 14 Eastbourne U14 players (a club record) have been nominated by their schools and Club to attend the Harlequins FC Developing Play Programme (DPP) held at Surrey Sports park, the Harlequins training ground.

Head Coach of the U14 Jean-Luc Bressard said “We wish the following players the best of luck at the Harlequins DPP assessment: Hawthorne F, MacCormack O, Warner T, Horton J, Howcroft E, Perks E, Swanepoel E, Mizen O, Bressard H, Putland J, Davies B, Hewitt C, McAleece O, Bourne H.”