Never was the phrase "a game of two halves" more appropriate than today, after Crawley staged a second half comeback to steal victory and progress in the Junior Vase competition.

Crawley were off the mark early on, slotting over a penalty from 45 yards after Southampton were penalised for handling on the floor. But after the early warning Southampton started to settle and took the opportunity to gain yards after a Crawley conceded penalty on halfway. Pierre Molyneux put the ball into touch deep in the Crawley half, where the pack called a shortened lineout.

Rob Greenaway caught the ball cleanly to set off the pre-planned move, which saw prop Marcus Coffin cutting a magnificent angle between the bemused defenders. He still had plenty to do after finding the gap and showed great footwork to sidestep the full back and finish off under the posts. Ward added the conversion to put Saints ahead 7-3.

The second try came straight from the restart as a chip over the top exposed Crawley's rush defence. Julian Robins took a fortunate bounce, beat the covering defender and ran round to touch down under the posts. Again Ward added the extras to give Southampton a 14-3 lead.

It was a highly physical game, with flanker Dan Keepax on the end of a collosal tackle from the Crawley centre. But once the big guy got his breath back he was soon instrumental in stealing the ball from a Crawley scrum in a dangerous position in the Saints twenty-two.

Southampton then extended their lead further after shipping the ball along the back line. Full back Aaron Nelson came into the line and showed great strenght to stay on his feet in the tackle. The support arrived quickly and drove Nelson over the line, who wrestled himself to the floor to ground the ball wide on the right. The conversion was missed, but Saints had a well-deserved 19-3 lead.

Southampton kept the pressure on and spent most of the half in Crawley territory. They came close to adding to the score when the ball was worked out wide on the left, but the final pass to winger Waterer was intercepted only to see Crawley run in from 70 yards for a fortunate try. The conversion made the game much tighter at half time, with Saints leading 19-10.

The second half, however, was a completely different story. Crawley raised their game and Saints suddenly found it difficult to retain their ball and create opportunities. Another long-range Crawley penalty narowed the score to 19-13 before a second interception saw the full back reduce the deficit to a single point. The conversion was missed to set up a dramatic finish with the score at 19-18.

Southampton found it difficult to create anything meaningful with so little possession and instead found themselves defendig for their lives. Pierre Molyneux put in a true Captain's performance making a number of try saving tackles, while substitute Doug Barrow somehow got himself under the ball as the Crawley number eight picked up and drove his way over from a five yard scrum.

Crawley kept applying pressure and were rewarded with two tries inside the final ten as they exploited some gaps in the Saints defence to take a 30-19 lead. But credit to the home side, who kept fighting to the last and spent the final five minutes camped in the Crawley twenty-two. They could have reduced the deficit when the ball was worked wide to Barrow, who offloaded in the tackle to Ward on the overlap. He went round the outside before being cut down by a high tackle from the Crawley winger, who spent the final minutes in the sin bin as a result.

The Sussex 1 leaders ended the game 19-30 winners after putting in an excellent second half performance to turn the game on its head. Southampton should take great confidence from their efforts, but again find themselves missing the killer touch to close out games and seal the win.

So it's an end to Southampton's Hawaiian Cup adventure and back to league action next week. Pierre's boys will be looking for points next week as they entertain bottom-of-the-table Aldershot & Fleet at Test Park.

Southampton Rugby Club

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