Burgess Hill RFC put on a well rounded display, particularly in the first half to secure a successful start to their league campaign against East Grinstead RFC at Saint Hill, overturning a 35-0 loss in the corresponding fixture the previous season, which was expertly officiated by Joe Ball over from Australia.

Hill had a comprehensive warm up aided by new water bottles kindly donated by the Batchelor family, on a sunny day which was in stark contrast to the monsoon like conditions they played at Saint Hill last season.

Hill made a strong start with winger Elwood Tai-Chidlow getting his hands on the ball early down the left wing; despite feeling under the weather Tai-Chidlow made great inroads down the wing. Some fine cover tackles stopped him short on 3 separate occasions.

After a heavy first tackle off the first lineout, outside half Angus Glyn-Jones used his tactical know-how and moved into a distributor role which gave the excellent Will Freestone plenty of work at centre in his best game in a black shirt to date.

Outside centre Tommy Batchelor opened the scoring for Burgess Hill RFC with a try in the 11th minute, which he followed up with a successful conversion. The build up play involved an excellent kick return from Archie Thompson fresh on to the rugby pitch after a successful round-ball cup win in the morning, interlinked with Finn Brady on the right wing took play into the opposition 22. A powerful carry from captain Paddy Lane, and a quick ruck secured by Max Thomas and Oli Kemble, caused a ruck offence from EGRFC. Batchelor took a quick tap penalty beat two players and scored under the posts.

Glyn-jones was instrumental in setting up another try for Burgess Hill RFC in the 23rd minute; following a penalty in the opposition 22, a strong carry at no8 Olly Moore, and quick possession retained by his flanker Hugo Dickson, allowed scrum Half Dylan Wenban to release Glyn-jones close to the line. From the ensuing ruck, Batchelor took a pick and go and scored in the corner for an unconverted try.

A rather sour end to the half saw Captain Lane take no further part In the game. Although his first half performance was enough to have him nominated by EG post match as their Star player.

Keen to protect Rugby's unique game values BHRFC make sure they adhere to England Rugby's "half a game rule[1]" Blake, Charlie, Jake, Harry, Henry and Jamie providing renewed energy for Burgess Hill.

Its seems that lightening does sometimes strike twice as Batchelor made a carbon copy of his first try with a tap and go, to go under the posts on the 13th minute of the second half and converted it to extend Burgess Hill RFC's lead 19-0. A clean break from Oli Kemble took play to the half way line, where Charlie Renals, who made some great probing runs all afternoon took the ball forward to a ruck quickly secured by Royce Cameron, who is maturing every game, and led to a ruck infringement. A quick tap and go from Batchelor saw him beat 4 defenders to go under the posts.

Grinstead then hit back with two converted tries of their own to leave a tense final 5 minutes, where some of Hill's more experienced players, led by stand -in captain Fin Staplehurst steadied the ship and made some excellent tackles to stop the momentum swing.

[1]RFU Half Game rule

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