Due to the weather Crawley’s last league match was over 6 weeks ago against a Rye team who walked off after 35 minutes. This is not the ideal preparation for a match against one of the toughest sides in the league and there were fears in some quarters that the momentum built up this season had been lost. Thankfully, this Crawley team is made of stern stuff and in front of a large crowd, that included the clubs sponsors, they dispelled any worries with a powerful win over a robust and competitive Burgess Hill on Saturday.
On an energy sapping heavy pitch it was Burgess Hill who made the better start. For the first 5 minutes they pinned Crawley in their own half with the forwards taking most of the ball. This early pressure was rewarded with a penalty to give them an early 3 – 0 lead. At this point some of these fears may seem to have come true, but the home fans need not have worried because from the kick-off Crawley started to dominate and it was now their turn to pin the Burgess Hill into their half.
It was not vintage rugby by any means of the imagination as the rustiness showed with several badly timed passes going astray, but the pressure had to eventually pay dividends and after 25 minutes following a couple of drives by the pack the ball was fed quickly to the wing Alex Figg who, despite nearly having his head taken off in the process, powered over in the corner to score. Crawley continued to dominate the territory and as the first half drew to a close, centre Jason Burt blasted his way around several tacklers to score making the half time score 10 – 3 to Crawley.
From the re-start Crawley immediately conceded a silly penalty that Burgess Hill duly converted to narrow the score to 4 points. This stung the home team to life and for the next 20 minutes they clicked into gear and played some great rugby. With Brendan Robinson towering in the line out and the front row of Sparkes, Ackhurst and Weeden in complete control it meant that Crawley had the set pieces sown up. Behind the pack scrum half John Doyle had a fine game while Andy Evans and Josh Hindt pulled the strings in the backs.
After 10 minutes of pounding the visitors line, one of the best phases of play in the match that involved forwards and backs combining superbly resulting in Alan Maybank storming over to score that was converted by Evans. For the next 15 minutes Crawley could, and should, have scored several more tries as completely dominated the game and a they squandered chances to score. Finally the fourth try came again when Alex Figg superbly span out of 2 tackles to score his second try giving Crawley a fairly comfortable 20 – 6 lead.
At this point a combination of fatigue in the home team and also Burgess Hills fighting spirit saw the visitors claw themselves back into the game. As the game got messier and messier, a series of fumbles and mistakes gave Burgess Hill a sniff of the line that they duly took close the gap to 9 points. Crawley picked themselves up again and the remainder of the games was played comfortable in the visitors half and the game ended 22 -11 to Crawley.
It was not a vintage performance by any means but in the context of the league and season it could turn out to be one of the most important wins so far. Crawley move on to Pulborough away next week.


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