Eastbourne RFC pile on points to beat Burgess Hill 70-3

Burgess Hill started strongly with scrum dominance which Eastbourne have not encountered so far this season and the away side managed to force Eastbourne into conceding a penalty.

This kick-started Eastbourne, who have normally started games very well this season, into action and they scored 70 unanswered points.

The Eastbourne coaching team are trying to stick firmly to their philosophy of ‘fit, fast and fun’ which was in full evidence from this point onwards.

This was the second time, at home, that Eastbourne have put a large score on a team. Every try was scored by a back, enabled by the hard-working forwards who made big holes for them to attack wide at pace and with very slick handling.

The first half saw Dylan Viles score two tries in 10 minutes, continuing his good form for the season following a week off through injury.

Mason Dowle scored his first of three superb tries and secured the MoM prize. He has played superbly since a long lay-off and has really put his claim down to start regularly in the back three.

Gianluca Bianchi scored two tries in five minutes from the right wing and secured a hat-trick which took him to ten tries in three games.

Jake Howe kicked two conversions in the first half, and considering Eastbourne were playing into a very strong wind, the half time score of 34-3 was very pleasing.

The second half saw Ryan Shields come off the bench and make a fantastic impact to put his claim in for the extremely competitive and impressive back row positions, and keep the pressure on his team-mates.

Ian Padget also came off the bench after having started every other game, and had a half at scrum-half and capped it with a try made by No8 Jeremy Montes, who again made some serious yards and impressive offloads.

The second half also saw captain Jake Howe score two excellent tries and kick three conversions, which was very pleasing for his team to see after missing a week with injury.

Jake has really led by example, supported brilliantly by pack leader and club stalwart Joe Bettles.

The second half was played at a blistering pace and saw Bianchi and Dowle complete their hat-tricks, which were a combination of both team tries and solo effort and once again showed off their speed and power.

This was Eastbourne's most complete performance of the season and testament to the hard training.

Martial Chaput, starting his first game after an ankle injury, got a knock to the head after an awkward tackle towards the end.

Eastbourne are top thanks to their good point difference. They travel to Haywards Heath tomorrow.

Eastbourne 2nd XV (the Nomads) lost 21-20 away to East Grinstead twos.