Hastings finish pre-season with another win

Following on from last weeks good performance and result Hastings looked to their second and last pre season game to fine tune the finer areas of the game in preparation for the Kent 1 league campaign. With Helingly in the same league as Hastings last season it was always going to be a good game and it didn’t disappoint.

Due to illness and injury Hastings had to make numerous alterations to the squad from the previous week with Dan Suggitt, Adam Parkhouse, Joe Umpleby and Connor Shaw unavailable, this gave opportunities for a debut in the first XV for Max Mowbrey and returns for Alex Waring and Jacob Mc Donough.

Helingly started the stronger of the two teams with some dynamic one out rugby and some physical work at the breakdown creating an opportunity which was taken out wide with the Helingly Full back running in from 40m out. This seemed to wake the Hastings team up and even though Helingly continued to put pressure on Hastings, the defensive effort was matching any attack thrown there way. 8 minutes on the clock and with an attacking scrum 5m out from the Helingly line Hastings had an opportunity to put pressure on the Sussex visitors and they didn’t disappoint with the visiting pack being physically and technically dominated resulting in a penalty given to the home side. The decision was to have another scrum but the result was the same with Helingly giving away another penalty, If this was further into the season a penalty try would have been given with a member of the Helingly pack taking a 10 minute break. But with this being a pre season game it was only a penalty, Hastings decided on another scrum and this time with advantage being played a good pick up from Frazer McManus and accurate pass out wide to Jake Stinson who out muscled his opposite number to score in the corner. Conversion missed. 5-7

The Hastings pack was now in the game and the crowd didn’t have to wait long for the next score with some lovely handling between both backs and forwards finding Veteran Prop Stephen Mc Manus out wide who fixed the winger in front of him to out Calvin Crosby Clarke over in the corner. This time Bruce Steadman didn’t miss with the conversion. 12-7. There were no further scores in the first half with both side putting strong defensive shifts in.
Ryan Foord, Archie Ridpath and Chris Butler came off the bench at half time for Tom Hirst, Max Mowbrey and Dominic Sewell.

The second half started much better for Hastings, with barely a minute on the clock and another 5 points on the score board for Hastings. This time Joe Whitehall James going over for his first try for Hastings following some good hands and movement to score off of first phase. Conversion missed by Steadman. 17-7.

Helingly came straight back at Hastings and with their physical ball carrying centre making ground creating an opportunity for Helingly to crash over for their second try of the game. Conversion missed. 17-12. With a few words being said by the senior players within the Hastings squad a response was wanted and needed to enable control of this game being taken back in the Hastings hands. The ball was moved wide to Archie Ridpath who straightened and steam rolled the defender in front of him stepped inside the next and then tripped over his own feet but whilst falling to the ground pulled an offload Sonny Bill Williams would have been proud of out of the bag putting Ryan Foord in for another score in the corner. Conversion missed. 22-12.

Hastings were now in the ascendancy and controlling the game well, Joe Whitehall James grabbed another score with a carbon copy of his first this time showing some lovely footwork and a good turn of pace to go over under the posts. Steadman added the extras. 29-12.

With the game drawing to an end Hastings finished there pre season games with another well worked try and a collector’s item with Tom Waring passing not just once but twice to see Jake Stinson grab his second of the game out wide. Waring stepped up to take the conversion from out wide missing narrowly. 34.12. Final Whistle.

Following another strong performance Joe Whitehall James was named Man of the Match for not only his brace of tries but his hard work for the team in both attack and defense

With the squad growing closer together and combinations working well the future looks bright for this Hastings team with their first Kent 1 league fixture coming up on 21st September 2019 at Home to Kings College Hospital.