Brighton faced Lewes, away, in our penultimate league match of the 24/25 season. Lewes, known for their aggressive forward-dominated style of play, presented a physical challenge, one that Brighton has struggled against previously.

Brighton kicked off proceedings, but Lewes immediately asserted control, holding possession for five minutes, relentlessly rolling forward phase after forward phase but with little territorial success. It was Brighton, however, who put points on the board first, and against the run of play, as #10 Liam Forsyth snatched an intercept and raced away to score under the posts. With the conversion successful, Brighton took an early 7-0 lead.

Lewes, responded quickly from the restart, pressed hard once again through their go-forward pack, and powered over in the corner to level the score at 7-7.

The next ten minutes saw an intense midfield battle, with both sides contesting between the two 22-meter lines. A breakthrough came when Brighton executed a slick backline move from a set-piece scrum deep in their own 22. A swift run down the touchline by winger Milo Hunt resulted in a try under the posts, pushing the visitors ahead 14 to 7. Brighton capitalised on this momentum immediately, with Liam Forsyth scoring again, straight from the restart, to extend the score to 19-7.

The game seemed to settle a bit, with Brighton continuously applying pressure, and making multiple incursions into the Lewes 22, but struggling to convert territory into points until just before halftime, when some beautiful forward interplay led to a crucial line break by #8 Aidan Banks for a well-worked try under the posts. The conversion was successful and at the break, Brighton led 26-7.

The second half began as a mirror image of the first, with Lewes dominating the early exchanges. Their forward pack ground out another try after five minutes, reducing the deficit to 12. The following 20 minutes became an attritional arm wrestle, with both teams attacking and defending feverously to try gain score, or close score. Tensions rose, and the game, with multiple overspills of emotion, started to fracture up and become scrappy, as Lewes grew increasingly frustrated at their inability to impose themselves on the game. The Wolves, with their forward's growing in stature, and their backline's suffocating defence, refused to take a step back and be bullied into submission.

The final ten minutes saw the game see-saw back and forth - a tactical kick into the right corner by Liam resulting in a glorious try in the opposite corner by Brighton prop George Haworth, and a try in the dying minutes by Lewes, ending a lively second half. Brighton, showing immense heart, fight, and character, held firm to take honours for the day 31 - 19, and with it, a full house of 5 points back to Waterhall.

With this victory, the Brighton Wolves form continues it's upward trajectory, and quietly climb the table, from sitting bottom, to fifth, boasting a draw and 3 wins from their last four outings, and everything to play for in their final game against Crowborough as they push for a fourth-place finish in the league.

One can mention names of those who scored points yesterday, but that would be a gross injustice to those whose names aren't spoken of, as every player on the team sheet played their part as they ran, pushed, pulled, jumped and tackled their blue-blooded hearts out.

The boys did themselves and Brighton Club proud, and are really coming together as a wonderful group of young rugby men.

Tries: Forsyth (2), Hunt, Banks, Haworth

Conversions: Forsyth (2), Rees-Matthews