For the last game of 2023 Trinity made the trip into Sussex to take on East Grinstead.

It was a fairly scrappy start by both teams due to the high penalty count especially in the scrums. It was East Grinstead who took first advantage from one of these decisions when they kicked the first 3 points of the game to give themselves as early lead.

Trinity however were soon back on level terms 20 minutes into the game when following clean ball from their own lineout centre, Ty Williams, burst through the East Grinstead defence. In the melee that followed Trinity were given a kickable penalty of their own which Jack Greenwood capitalised on.

Fired up by a lively crowd East Grinstead stepped it up a couple of gears and soon their pressure paid off with the first try of the game. A second try looked certain to follow shortly after however Mark Macaskill pulled off a perfect cover tackle (much to the amazement off the Trinity support on the sideline who were expecting him to see yellow for a clothes-line) to keep Trinity within touching distance!

With a further flurry of penalties at the scrum which left players and supporters from both side confused the Trinity back line was starved off ball. East Grinstead on the other hand were given a number of opportunities thanks to strong carries from their 8 and tight head. Their back were clinical and came with three further first half tries to leave the score at 27-3 at halftime.

Trinity tried to launch an early attack from their own 22 however Marc McEvilly did not realise that the voice outside him shouting “pop” was an East Grinstead player! Not only did this cheeky move stop the Trinity attack but it also gave East Grinstead an early score of their own!

Trinity who had already lost veteran prop Dom Plumb to a head injury soon lost blindside flanker, Olly Hubbard in similar fashion. However they refused to lie down and came back fighting! Their efforts were soon rewarded when following a driving maul from the edge of the 22 Ali Hall was on hand to touch down for the try and Greenwood added a further 2 points with the kick.

Trinity continued to battle and nearly produced the try of the game. Williams, again, making the initial break from inside his own 22 before offloading to Alex Scott just inside the East Grinstead half (how Scott managed to keep up with him will remain one of life’s many unsolved mysteries). As he approached the opposition 22 Sott passed the ball on to Alfie Lamb who then shipped it on towards McEvilly. McEvilly however dummied the catch (the polite way to say it went straight through his hands) which allowed it to somehow fall straight into the hands of Aiden Sisk who danced his way around the East Grinstead defence. He could have scored in the corner but with Dave Spedding screaming at him to go towards the post he tried to cut inside the cover defence to unfortunately be held up over the line (although he claims he did manage to touch it down).

Trinity battled on but without any further reward and as the game was approaching the end East Grinstead did manage to get one final converted try to leave the result as 41-10.

Match report Russell Jones.
TRIBE ADVISORY Player of the Match – FAROOQ AGBALAYA