The Boars faced an Eastbourne team hurting from a surprise defeat against Cinque Ports the week before. It was clear they meant business with a large and surprisingly mobile pack taking the ball to the Boars from the start. With the Boars scrum also under pressure it was clear that the teams would run completely different tactics throughout the match. Eastbourne wanted to play a slow game close to the forwards and the Boars wanted to play a fast game out wide.

Kenny "KFC" Lewis at the lineout...

The first 15 minutes was evenly contested with both sides making half breaks and defences looking strong. The Boars changed this when they won the ball in midfield and Dave Rhodes popped a pass to the blindside for man of the match Mike Macleod to run onto. Macleod offloaded to Brady Burdett who drew in the last defender and passed to Full Back Rob Woods who outpaced the cover defence to score between the posts. Rhodes converted to make the score 7-0.

the Club Chairman has still got it...

This stung Eastbourne who pressured hard until a big clearance kick and chase got the Boars a lineout 10 metres out from the Eastbourne line. Scrum half Rhodes caught the Eastbourne defence dozing when he took the ball in himself and jinked past the sleepy defence to score in the corner. To their credit Eastbourne came back even harder and pressured the Boars line for several minutes. During this phase they were awarded a 5 metre scrum and used their considerable weight advantage to good effect by pushing the Boars back over their line to take the score to 12-5.

Eastbourne continued to pound away through their forwards and the Boars defended stoutly. Another foray into the Eastbourne half gained the Boars a vital score just before halftime. The Boars forwards recycled quick ball and it went quickly through the backs hands and out to full back Woods who snuck in at the corner to leave the score at 17-5 at halftime.

Brady puts away Simon "Twinckle Toes" Hollingdale

The Boars now had the advantage of the wind and used this to pin the Eastbourne forwards back as much as possible. This worked well until blindside flanker Ian Schleider was yellow carded and a poor clearance kick let the Eastbourne pack execute their rolling maul close to the line and the Boars did not defend well enough to stop the score. 17-10 and the game was back in the balance.

The decisive score came with 15 minutes left to play when replacement full back Sam Goatcher came into the line and scored near the corner in front of the clubhouse. The Boars continued to work hard to deny Eastbourne a way back into the game and most of the last 10 minutes was spent in the opponents half. There was great relief when the referees whistle went for the end of the match leaving the Boars top of the league.

Man of the Match was Mike Macleod for a gutsy performance as prop and for doing the ‘hard work’ throughout the match.

Boars Team – M. MacLeod, J. Sharp (C. Ambrosino – 50), B. Togher, P. Hookway (P. de Bruin – 60), T. Rose, I. Schlieder (D. Bird – 65), K. Lewis (B. Groves – 75), O. Robertshaw, D. Rhodes, B. Burdett, D. Hesketh, A. Farrell, S. Hollingdale, N. Sands, R. Woods (S. Goatcher – 40)

Match report by Mike MacLeod

2/16/2008 4:55:23 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)