H&B sweep into trophy semi-finals

Their reward will be a trip to Bognor - a side in the top half of the table two divisions above H&B - on March 17. If they were to achieve the highly improbable feat of winning there, they would play the final on their home ground against Worthing or Lewes.

Sunday's game should have been played the previous Saturday, but Crawley's ground was waterlogged. So the hosts were left in the unenviable position of having to play a league game at Pulborough the day before the rescheduled cup tie, while H&B had a league-free Saturday.

As a result, while Crawley competed with their customary grit and determination, especially in the pack, their back line found H&B's hard-running, slick-handling attack too much to handle.

The visitors - still smarting from their costly league loss at this ground early in the season - put pace on the game from the kick off, and when Crawley had to slap down a pass to kill an attack in their 22, Paul Sandeman kicked a penalty for an early three-point lead.

Five minutes later a high bomb by Crawley was well taken by Tom Brampton, neatly slipped to Danny Ralph and moved smoothly along the line to Ben Campbell, who skinned his man on the outside for a fine try in the corner. Further attacks by H&B led to Crawley being penalised, and Sandeman took a quick tap and beat the cover for a 40-metre dash under the posts, to put H&B 13-0 up.

Crawley were winning their share of the ball at lineouts and in the loose, but their tight attacking moves were stalled by some huge tackling, led by Kit Claughton.

Thirty minutes into the game, a break by Claughton found a gap in the defence, and with the line 10 metres away he drew his man and passed to David Northen, who scored under the posts, converted by Sandeman. Northen's second try came a few minutes later, with an interception as Crawley tried to run the ball out of their own 22, again converted by Sandeman, 27-0.

With half time looming, Crawley's pack got their reward for doggedness, with a well-worked pushover try from a lineout, converted from the touchline.

Moments later H&B replied, when Kris Dempster's tackle turned over the ball and Campbell raced into the corner, 32-7.

The second half started badly for H&B, more Crawley forward pressure in the visitors' 22 leading to Steve McManus getting yellow carded for killing the ball.

The hosts took advantage of the depleted H&B scrum to work a second pushover try, again well converted, to close the score to 32-14.

Ten minutes later McManus atoned with a touchdown from a powerful H&B pushover set scrum. And Claughton got on to the scoreboard by finishing off under the posts another scorching Campbell run down the wing, converted by Sandeman. Not to be outdone, Brampton showed his skills with a long run through traffic, but it was Northen who completed the scoring with a try under the posts, converted by man-of-the-match Sandeman.