Away vs Marist Albion
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Round 4
1st May 2010 - 2:45pm Venue : Middleton 1Result : 28 - 10
Match Report
It was always going to be a tough day at the office for the Brighton team away at Marist. Middleton Park has not been a happy hunting ground in recent times and after a very slow start Brighton soon found themself 7-0 down. Some slack defence enabled Marist to break and after a few well constructed phases they forced their way over. This early score line was even more disappointing with Brighton having the advantage of a strong first half wind.
The early Marist try seemed to wake Brighton up and they were soon using the wind to better effect, the result being 3 well taken penalties to Rob Smith, the third of which was a particularly good effort from 40m. Having gained the lead 9-7 Brighton were getting a little frustrated with the lack of tries as the wind warranted a decent half time lead, a disallowed try from Aaron McCoy the closest that they came. However with half time approaching Marist gave away a string of penalties as they desperately tried to keep Brighton out, the final penalty being right in front of the uprights, Marist assumed a shot at goal was coming but a quick tap from David Cattermole and a good pass out to Ben Murphy in space saw him cross for a much needed first half try and a lead of 16-7.
The second half saw Marist take advantage of the wind to gain good field position with a penatly eventually forthcoming, bringing the score back to 16-10. It was then that Brighton had their best phase of the game. Another dominant lineout display was providing plenty of posession and when Isaac Ross made a good break a typical one handed off load seemed to put in Chris Damsteegt, only for it to be ruled forward. It was not long before Ross went on another run, this time offloading to Will Anglem who dotted down giving Brighton some breathing space. A conversion from the touch line hit the post leaving the score at 21-7.
Brighton were retaining posession well and frustrating the Marist team, most of the play was taking place in the home teams half, when a long clearance kick from Marist was fielded by Aki Salave he went on a strong run before finding Ben Murphy in space, Murphy had a 2 man over lap but as the defence drifted to cover the space it opened up for him to bag his second of the day. This was the final score of the game and although Brighton pushed for a 4th try and a bonus point they had to settle for a comfortable 28-10 victory.
After a slow start Brighton dug deep and showed some fighting qualities and patients to eventually put away a Marist side that battled hard. The Brighton defence was excellent after being exposed early on and the attacking abilities came to the fore later in the game when more space became available. However the coaches will be looking for a more complete performance in coming weeks as the opposition gets stronger.