East Grinstead faced local rivals Haywards Heath at a sunny Saint Hill in the 1st round of the Papa Johns cup. Spirits were high after a positive end to the league campaign the previous week.

East Grinstead got off to a lively start with Will Bramwell scoring off a loose Haywards Heath lineout and John Peaty getting on the end of a very impressive kick return by Ted Hardisty running round his opposition winger taking the score up to 14-0 to EG.

Haywards Heath started to come into the game and control more of the ball, bringing the scores level at 14-14. A dominant 1st half in the set piece saw Guy Collins go over off the back of a powerful G’s maul to bring the score to 19-14. The highlight of the day followed, this was Guy’s enormous throw of the oppositions boot, back towards Haywards Heath, as he prepares for the cricket season. A very questionable tap & go by Oli Billin saw the half come to a close, being on the end of a big hit by the opposition which ended his afternoon early.

The second half saw lots more trys with Jake Radcliffe opening the scoring after running a lovely line at inside centre, looking very settled in his new position. His centre partner Chris May-Miller got on the end of another Ted break down the left wing to increase the EG lead with a delightful skip. Luke Maker then managed to cap off a strong performance from the bench at fly-half after receiving a lovely offload from Tom Mooney.

Haywards Heath bounced back from this to score 3 trys of their own to bring a very tight scoreline at 40-37 before EG secured the victory with the last try of the game, which was Sandy’s favourite, a maul from a lineout that travelled over 20 metres and secured the victory for East Grinstead. Despite Brimo being on the scoresheet, this was a team try and secured a 45-37 victory for EG.

MOTM went to Chris May Miller for a very dominant performance in both attack and defence, breaking the line several times and scoring. DOTD very harshly went to Dan Billin (author) for attempting to play rugby without an ACL and finding out he can’t, very early in the warmup.

This result means that the season is not yet done for EGRFC 1XV as they progress through to the next round and will look to end the season on a high with some silverware.