A game of two halves

A blend of experience and youth took control of the first forty minutes and such was their superiority that the few Brighton supporters that had made the trip up from the south coast quite rightly expressed concern of the final outcome.
The young half backs in Brad Smith and Aaron Rayner were working well together and allowed the backs sufficient good ball to keep the "Blues" on the back foot.
Gss found themselves 0-3 behind from the penalty kick from the boot of fly half Peter Sowerby but as the game move towards the end of the first quarter, quick recycling and backing up saw Rayner show a huge dummy before running in for his debut try to which he then added the conversion to take the lead 7-3.
With a yellow card reducing the visitors to fourteen players, six minutes later scrum half Smith made the gap to dive through after the pack had put pressure on the visitors line, 12-3
Gravesend's pack to a man excelled as they drove forward to spend so much time in the opposition twenty two but events seemed to see them lose the ball before they could cross the whitewash.
Time after time the next score looked to be coming and six minutes into the yellow, they made the extra man count as the ball was let out passing through hands to skipper, Tom Bird, who chased in and round near the posts.
Rayner added the extra points to move the score on to 19-3 at the interval.
The work rate of Matt Hewitt was outstanding during the first forty minutes and it was disappointing to see him missing at the restart, but he again showed to the fore when he returned to the park for the last ten minutes.
Much expectations were anticipated from the next forty minutes, but small changes seemed to take the shape out of the Gss attack, that said however, Papworth stormed forward with some well angled bursts, Tuinasskea took all before him with his strong runs from the centre, and the pack carried on where they left off at the break.
Driving runs from Marshall, Bird, Stevens kept the "Blues" busy in defence, but the attack was often too narrow or the ball slow out that allowed Brighton to regroup in defence.
Gss were not having it all their own way in this second half and were their selves made to defend and this they did quite stoutly but with a man short following a yellow for infringing at the ruck, the inevitable happened (but questionably after a deliberate wheel of the scrum beyond ninety degrees) the Blues touched down for a try after seventy-one minutes.
Rayner had one more chance to add a score but the strong breeze took the accurate looking kick wide of the upright. The bonus point try that could be so important at the end of the season eluded Gss, and Brighton can be admired for their spirited come back in the second half.
Next week they take the long journey around the M25 and M3 to take on Gosport and Fareham.