All Blacks on the verge of coveted promotion

Burgess Hill’s rugby players can seal promotion to cap a marvellous season by beating local visitors Newick on Saturday (3pm).

The Sussex All Blacks are currently 14 points clear of nearest rivals Eastbourne with three matches left to play.

On Saturday Hill made the short trip to Whitemans Green to face Haywards Heath 2nds and were told that as the hosts could not field a front row, the league points were conceded.

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However, despite that and atrocious conditions, both teams agreed to play a friendly, which Hill won 24-8.

The visitors started strongly, scoring a converted try after only two minutes. After some powerful drives up field, stand-in scrum half Dan Harris went over from the back of a ruck to leave outside centre Will Pearson a routine conversion.

This was followed five minutes later by an unconverted try by captain Jon Phillpot, who drove over from a maul after flanker Christian Jones collected a penalty kicked into the corner.

Hill continued to dominate all exchanges, with second row Cris Leahy and prop Darren Coulton making inroads into the Heath defence.

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Due to the pitch conditions, the backs were not getting much ball but when they did, the centre pairing of Simon Eyre and Pearson ran at the home defence at every opportunity.

The next score came down the blindside channel from Harris and with Pearson adding the two points, Hill led 19-0.

A penalty on the stroke of half time opened Heath’s account and in a dire second half they matched Hill’s unconverted try, scored by Phillpot.

Clinching promotion this weekend will be Hill’s goal and that will leave games against Holbrook (A) and Midhurst (H) as largely academic.