East Grinstead 2's were back at HQ with Barns Green coming to do battle at the end of the Memorial Week for the Big Man, Matt Ratana. The weather cleared to reveal a perfect day for playing rugby. Matt would have loved it.

G's squad was a little different from the week before, with a backline shored up by a pair of flankers who did a top notch job.
After a 1 minutes silence G's came out of the blocks with the pack putting the opposition under pressure and after 11 minutes the backs found space to put Dan Arnold over the line to open the scoring. The game flowed well with tit for tat salvos until Barns Green scored at the 25 minute mark. The half closed out in a similar fashion.

The second half saw a shift in G's fortunes as we conceded a well worked Barns Green try, quickly followed by another a minute later being the result of a G's mistake. Our subs started rolling and having come on at 9 Ryan Morlen broke through to score which was converted by James Jenkins boot. The game was taking it's toll injuries-wise as G's moved players around to cover. Barns Green kicked a penalty and the score started to favour the visitors. G's showed great heart in reacting and the forwards applied pressure with the reward being a driving try from Dave Bridges - again the additional points from James Jenkins.

Tiredness and injuries had started to deplete G's and the visitors front row ripped a ball and broke through finding himself in what I can only assume the scariest place a prop can be......open space. To his credit he charged for the line and scored under the posts setting up the conversion. As the match drew to a close G's refused to bow down and were on our 2nd/3rd/4th wind and again, Ryan Morlen found his way through with the boot subsequently dotting his own kick down out wide. Sadly G's left it too late to reel Barns Green in and the final whistle blew.

A tough day at the office for G'2, we were a team with great players, all of whom were new to each other and against Barn's Green, who very much were gelled as a team, this turned out to be the deciding factor. Full credit to every man in blue and white though, they left it all on the pitch. Next week is a break week to rest, repair and go again!

Man of the match was deservedly Ryan Morlen and special mention for Tom Mooney and Dan Arnold who starting in the backline and gave a very good account of themselves.