Burgess Hill 10, Eastbourne 20: All Blacks left bitterly disappointed

Despite Eastbourne riding higher than the All Blacks in the league and having beaten the men in black 63-25 earlier in the season the All Blacks were confident they were going to win.

Pictures by Steve Blanthorn

Eastbourne came out of the blocks the fastest and threw the kitchen sink at the All Blacks with their No.8, fly half and wingers carrying well into the All Blacks half.

For the first 30 minutes it was all Eastbourne but the All Blacks defence stood strong with flankers Andy Mackay and Christian Jones getting into double figure tackle count.

In this period All Blacks prop Jon Phillpot left the field with an eye gouge resulting in stitches.

Despite Eastbourne having a larger pack the All Blacks were causing them problems at scrum time where the Bourne No.8 used all his experience to offset the Black pack dominance.

At the 30 minute mark with the Bourne attack tiring and running out of options the All Blacks began to play some rugby with the second row of Tim Daniel and Adam Rez carrying hard into the Bourne half.

At the breakdown the Bourne six was finally caught for holding on and a penalty was awarded.

Fly half Rhys Clarke stepped up and slotted the penalty for a 3-0 lead.

As too often is the case the All Blacks took their foot of the pedal at the restart and following some strong drives by the Bourne pack their fly half dummied and crashed over for the try which he converted 3-7.

With 90 seconds left in the clock the All Blacks kicked off and held the Bourne player up in the tackle.

The Black pack turned on the power at the scrum taking the ball against the head. No.8 Dave Wattam picked and drove on five metres.

At the ruck scrum half Sam David dummied and went on mazy 20 metre run before dotting down. Clarke stepped up and slotted the conversion to end the half 10-7.

At half time the All Blacks were confident the game was for the taking with them playing down the slope and the Bourne pack creaking.

As it was the second half was a disaster for the All Blacks where any clean ball they did secure was cheaply given away and ill discipline lead to a large number of penalties against them.

Bourne scored early on following a turnover from a poor execution by the All Blacks lead to a knock on.

The ball was spun wide where a miss match of winger vs prop lead to try which was converted 10-14.

The next 25 minutes was a nightmare for the All Blacks as they did all the hard work and then gave away cheap penalties.

The breakdowns were a mess with the referee looking for the game to flow which was proving difficult in a worsening pitch.

During this period they missed a kick at goal.

In the last five minutes Bourne kicked two 30 metre penalties as the All Blacks lost two players to injury and 1 to the bin.

This was the game the All Blacks had targeted to get their season back on track and they will be bitterly disappointed they did not take the much needed win.

Sussex Osteopathy MoM went to Sam David who showed fight and endeavour throughout.

Next week the All Blacks are away to Park House a team they beat at home earlier in the season.

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