Beckenham made the long journey to undefeated Chichester in this London 1 South league encounter and came away second best as the newly promoted Sussex side stormed to the top of the table with a convincing victory.

With three late changes in key positions, Beckenham were under pressure from the start as the home side dominated the close encounters and kept the visitors on the back foot with excellent continuity amongst their forwards. It did not take long before the pressure was turned into points and following a lineout deep in Beckenham territory they powered over for a converted try.

This set the pattern for the rest of the half and although Beckenham held good field position on several occasions, mistakes and constant turnovers gave Chichester the opportunity to keep up the pressure. Inevitably gaps started appearing in the visitors close in defence and the scores followed with three converted tries before the break. Indeed it could have been more only for Alex Jones chasing a seemingly lost cause and catching a breakaway to prevent what seemed a certain score. Flanker Brendon Hamilton’s relentless tackling was perhaps the only other highlight in a disappointing opening 40 minutes for the visitors. With a further two injuries and players playing out of position, the half time whistle could not have come soon enough as they went in on the wrong end of a 26 to 0 scoreline.

Beckenham upped the pace in the second half but a series of handling errors let them down at vital times and it was from one of these failed attacks that Chichester mounted a counter attack of their own and swept the length of the field to score the try of the match. The successful conversion took the score to 33 to 0 and it was starting to look ominous for the visitors.

Beckenham started to settle in the set piece and debutant Martyn Plews was finding Paul Roumph in the lineout and Paul Currie got them moving forward from the back of the scrum which helped relieve the constant pressure. But chasing a lost cause Beckenham were forcing passes and trying to find non-existent gaps and went unrewarded for some good passages of play.

After some good work by Christian Scade in the tight, Alex Jones emerged with the ball and burst through two defenders to register the final score of the game, the unconverted try leaving the result at 33 to 5.

An extremely disappointing first half left Beckenham always chasing the game and although the loss of key players just before and during the early part of the game contributed heavily, this was a performance that they will need to improve on if we are to avoid a repeat of last season.

Beckenham Rugby Football Club

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