U16 Hove Hawks victory over Battersea

Hove Hawks 36 - Battersea Ironsides 14

Hawks continued their winning start to the season with a 36-14 win against Battersea Ironsides in the opening round of Surrey Division 1.

With a great win against Canterbury 2 weeks earlier this match had points up for grabs and both teams knew the importance of getting off to a good start.

Hove started sprightly and had Ironsides under pressure in their 22 and the pressure told after several pick and goes from the forwards seeing Thomas crash over, Griff converted and the hawks were off and running 7-0. Hawks were again in possession but tried to force it, handed over possession and found themselves under pressure, this gave Ironsides confidence and it wasn’t long till they levelled the match 7-7

This gave the Hawks a wake up call, the forwards got tighter in their pod work and defense and the backs started to flow like we know they can, several opportunities were missed before a lovely team move and some scintillating running from Eddie with a great try saw the Hawks edge ahead, 12-7 game on !

The game ebbed and flowed each side looking to strike, and it was the Hawks again, Will H snipping from a scrum with a bit of work still to do crossed the white wash, griff converted and it was 19-7, the Hawks had some daylight now going into HT

The second half got underway both teams down to 13 a side due to Battersea having an injury, space was beginning to open up, the players on both sides were having to work hard, but Hawks took advantage of the extra space first and sent Tio through under the posts, Griff converted it was now 26-7

If Hawks got the next score it was game over but knowing this it was Battersea that was throwing the kitchen sink at it and they broke though they were now taking advantage of the space, game back on 26-14

As we have seen so many times over the years the Hawks find a way to dig in, hold firm and the maturity they showed to wrestle back control and dampen any thoughts of a Battersea revival, first Jonathan ‘road runner’ Lodi was given a a couple of yards on the edge, the after burners were switched to Mach 2 and no one in the South of England was going to catch him, 31-14

Both sides with 2 players down were getting tired but it was Hawks that kept pushing, and Will Mac with some work to do crossed to make it 36-14, probably a fair result

Despite some scrappy patches the boys should be very proud, they are trained to play structured rugby and starting 14 a side then 13 a side makes a big difference and they adjusted better than ironsides and deserved to take the opening game with a bonus point win

Battersea picked Dylan as Player of the match, well deserved not only for an outstanding performance but also stepping in as captain at short notice

Shout out to Luis Brown who played 10 minutes for Battersea (Almost scoring a try) before moving back to Hove to keep the game going

Bigger tests lie ahead, and they come fast with Old Reigations next week in round 2 at home!

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