Teddington knock Eastbourne RFC out of national cup – but Nomads win Sussex Vase

Teddington 20 Eastbourne 0

Papa John’s Cup

Eastbourne are out of the national cup after losing their last-16 tie at Teddington.

It was a beautiful sunny day and perfect conditions for running rugby.

Teddington took an early advantage with a penalty and Eastbourne were under the cosh for a while but broke out a few times and were just short of scoring on two occasions which would have dented Teddington’s confidence.

Teddington scored another long-range penalty to take the lead to 6-0.

Eastbourne started to apply scrum dominance and were awarded a couple of penalties. This forced Teddington into an early change in the front row – and it seemed Eastbourne’s best route to getting back control of the game.

Following a scrum penalty Eastbourne attacked well, right to the try line and looked certain to score, but loose head Chris Hoskins was red carded for an off-the-ball incident.

This left Eastbourne down to 14 men for an hour and the area of dominance in the scrum was lost.

Teddington attacked relentlessly and scored on the stroke of half time to take the lead to 13-0.

The second half was played mainly in the middle of the pitch, with Eastbourne mostly defending wave after wave of big runners.

And when they had the chance to attack, they uncharacteristically knocked it on or fumbled the ball.

Eastbourne’s preferred fast and wide game was also nullified by a narrow pitch, along with aggressive defence from the home side.

Eastbourne’s good defence did frustrate Teddington and they did give a yellow card away to even up numbers for ten minutes.

Teddington secured the win on 70 minutes with another converted try and 20-0 is how the game ended.

Eastbourne will face Teddington again next year as they have been promoted to the same league.

Eastbourne now turn their attention to the Sussex Cup semi-final with the date to be confirmed.

Eastbourne Nomads 31 Hastings & Bexhill 2s 15

Sussex Vase final

The Nomads secured their first Sussex cup with a convincing victory over Hastings & Bexhill at Crawley.

This was their first final for 14 years and they rose to the occasion.

Stuart Sorrell kicked a penalty two minutes but Hastings responded with a try. Following an excellent break from Konrad O'Neil, Owen Jones scored a try for Eastbourne, followed by a double fly hack and tackle from Stuart Baker resulting in another try, both converted by Sorrell, and it was 17-10 at the break.

After the break two tries by Adam Blennerhassett, converted by Sorrell, extended the Nomads’ lead nicely.

There were great games from Ronnie Doorey-Palmer, Konrad O'Neil, Charlie Milner, Sebastian Wardle and Justin Funnell. Cameron Burleight was MoM.

This was a momentous day as the Nomads got to lift a Sussex cup after years of hard work.