HEARTBREAK at the final whistle for Royals RFC as they succumbed 18-19 to league leaders Eastbourne II, despite putting up one heck of a fight.
A chilly but dry day greeted the excited crowd at Grainville for this mammoth clash against the in-form team in the league.
The Royals visited Eastbourne earlier in the season in what was an incredibly close contest, won by the UK outfit 26-22. However, it proved to be one of the league leaders’ toughest games to date.
Saturday was no different, as one could argue the visitors were lucky to walk away with anything from the game.
It was Eastbourne who started the game on the front foot, however, taking early possession and camping inside the Royals half for the majority of the first ten minutes.
Looking disciplined and organised, the visitors pressed hard and the Royals looked to be slow out of the blocks in the early exchanges.
A costly penalty gave Eastbourne the chance to open the scoring, which was duly accepted with a well-taken kick for an early 3-0 advantage.
This sparked the Royals into action, however, and the home side began to grow in confidence with the ball in hand.
The hosts could have scored the game’s first try on 23 minutes, but the ball was held up just inches short of the try line and eventually knocked on.
Just as it looked as if the Royals were going to take the next score, another penalty was conceded and the visitors capitalised to make it 6-0.
The men in blue kept on pushing, with a yellow card being shown to Connor Bisson-Mercury on the stroke of half time for a high tackle.
However, that scoring chance did finally come as the half came to a close.
The home side won their own penalty, which was kicked successfully for a 6-3 half time deficit and some crucial momentum earned going into the break.
Royals skipper Pearse Moloney said: “That penalty just before half time was massive for us.
“We came into the break a bit frustrate, but pleased we were only three back. We knew we could catch them.
“We knew if we started to really take the attack to them then we would get chances, and we came out flying at the re-start.”
That momentum proved exactly what the doctor ordered, as the Caesareans came at their UK foes hard in the opening exchanges, eventually scoring their first try of the game courtesy of no.13 Christian Weald down the left hand corner for an 8-6 lead.
The left corner was targeted again shortly after, this time by the outstanding Cam Halliwell, who’s mazy run saw him beat several Eastbourne defenders before crossing the whitewash for a 13-6 advantage.
“We knew from the last time we played them that they were quite a narrow team,” continued Moloney.
“We really wanted to target the width and use our wingers to good effect.
“It was really pleasing to see this plan come together for three tries, and for the lads to have the skill to execute that plan effectively.”
The tide had changed and it was the Royals looking unstoppable, with the visitors now scratching their heads as to what to do.
A third penalty gave them the chance to bring it back to 13-9, which was duly converted.
However the Royals would score their third try of the game, again down the left flank, this time scored by no.11 George Burke, with many in the crowd assuming this was the deciding score of the game.
However, despite three tries for the home side, the struggles with the boot meant none of them were converted, and six lost points proved a massive loss in this closely fought contest.
Eastbourne received their fourth successive chance to put three points on the board, and the successful kick brought the score back to 12 and within distance for them to potentially snatch a late victory.
The pressure looked close to boiling over, as the Royals received their second yellow card of the afternoon, this time to Marcus Brandon for another high tackle offence.
As the final whistle crept closer, the visitors got their chance, the gap appeared and the try was scored with literally the final play of the game, however, the game was not yet won.
The try itself took the score to 18-17, with the conversion required for all the points to return to the mainland.
The kick was stared at for some time before, striding purposely forwards, the Eastbourne fly-half stroked the ball expertly through the centre of the posts, and the scenes of celebration from the Eastbourne players echoed across the playing fields.
It was a feisty and quick-tempo game which genuinely could have gone either way, but the Royals will feel this was a great chance to get one over on the league leaders.
Walking away from the game, this squad can hold their heads high knowing that for the majority of the game, they outplayed probably the best team in the league and were unlucky in the end not to secure the victory.
“It was a heartbreaking ending,” concluded Moloney.
“We were so close to securing a huge win there, but there are so many positives we can take away from this performance.
“Especially in the second half, I think we really clicked together as a group. That’s something we need to do more of over the next few games.
“Eastbourne are top of the league at the end of the day and they’ve only just beaten us. If we can come together like we did in this game and produce that level of output against other teams in this league, then we can beat anybody.
“We are not a team to be taken lightly by anybody, we know what we can do and we will take a lot of confidence from knowing how close we came in this match. I’m so proud of the boys for their hard work.”
Royals RFC: [1-15] Sam Dillon, Jack Lowe, Ben France, Josh Twohig-Jones, Conor Bisson-Mercury, JJ Le Feuvre (vc), Fraser George, Cam Halliwell, Connor Devenny, Mungo Rioda, George Burke Aidan Dobney, Christian Weald, Pearse Moloney (c), Ben Pearson
Replacements: Brodie Sutton, Charlie Dixon-Smith, Sebastian Wijsmuller, Lewis Ham Howes, Hugo Reid, Marcus Brandon, Ross Williamson, Zak Le Marquand
