Rye romp to 84-5 victory

The New Roaders scored 12 tries in all as they hammered Eastbourne II 84-5 in Sussex Division Two on Saturday.

Man of the match Rory Creavin ran in four tries, the returning Matt Cooke scored a hat-trick, Gregg Phillips and Simon Wheeler got two each, and John Smith crossed for the other. Chris Edwards added six conversions.

Rye coach Jeremy Nobbs said: “Our scrum was strong, the lineout functioned very well, our defence was strong and our offloading got better as the game went on.

“The only things that went wrong was a lack of discipline at the back end of the first half and some of our passing wasn’t as precise as we would’ve liked.

“But all in all it was very satisfying - a good team effort and lots of smiles in the clubhouse afterwards. We played some pretty attractive rugby with good offloading and good support.”

The first four tries came during the first half. Rye started off quite briskly and scored two or three tries, but then started to alienate the referee and got into a bit of an arm wrestle with the opposition, giving away silly penalties and even having a player sent to the sin-bin.

The message at half time was to cut out the penalties, get beyond the ball at the ruck, be patient and build the score. And build the score they duly did as Rye added eight more tries to their tally, slicing through Eastbourne seemingly at will as the second half wore on.

Eastbourne never gave up, but were well overpowered by a Rye side which was simply too strong in too many areas.

“It was a good performance from 1-20,” continued Nobbs. “It was nice to see Rye play like they did last season (when they finished third in the old Sussex Intermediate League).

“I’m hoping we can go on and have a good end to the season. The target now is to win our last five games.”

Eighth-placed Rye were beaten by four of their remaining opponents in the reverse fixtures before Christmas, but have won their last three contested matches and belief is clearly growing.

They are without a game this weekend, but will return to action with a long trip to second-placed Pulborough II on Saturday March 4.

See our comprehensive sports coverage in the Observer every Friday.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make this website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Sport-Sussex

3 Follow us on Twitter @SportSussex

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!