Regular First team squad

• • 1 Loosehead prop John Wilson.
  • 2 Hooker Dennis Singleton.
  • 3 Tighthead prop Phil Innis.
  • 4 Lock / Loosehead prop  Ben Lane.
  • 5 Lock Toby Culshaw.
  • 6 Blindside Flanker
    Flanker (rugby union)
    A flanker is a position in the sport of rugby union. Flankers play in the forwards, and are generally classified as either blindside, or openside flankers; numbers six and seven respectively. The name comes from their position in a scrum in which they flank each set of forwards...
    
     / Hooker  Steve Dann.
  • 7 Openside flanker
    Flanker (rugby union)
    A flanker is a position in the sport of rugby union. Flankers play in the forwards, and are generally classified as either blindside, or openside flankers; numbers six and seven respectively. The name comes from their position in a scrum in which they flank each set of forwards...
    
      Josh Sheppard.
  • 8 Number eight Dan Newby.
  • 9 Scrum-half Dan Kristiansen.
  • 10 Fly-half / Fullback Ben Cox.
  • 11 Left wing Alex Price.
  • 12 Inside centre Paul Burns (C).
  • 13 Outside centre Chris Burns.
  • 14 Right wing Warren Wadsworth.
  • 15 Fullback / Right wing  Craig Warren.

Replacements
16 Wes Gregory
17 Piers Culshaw
18 Mark Tait
19 Simon Baker
20 Lee Deves-McQueen
21 Jason Pheasent
22 Jason Morgan

Seaford Rugby Football Club

Seaford are a Rugby Union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 club, currently playing in the Sussex Spitfire 1

Sussex Spitfire 1

Sussex Spitfire 1, also known as Sussex 1 is an English level 9 Rugby Union League. It is made up of teams predominantly from Sussex. The twelve teams play home and away matches from September through to April....

, based below sea level in the town of Seaford, East Sussex, in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.
They are regarded as one of the toughest, yet welcoming teams in the south with great supporters and team spirit. The Seaford pack has been rumoured to be the most unforgiving packs around for many, many years and there are many teams around sussex who will second that.
Seaford has strong ties with the military as many of their past and present players have fought for the country and also with in the last few years have had a player, Steven Dann, serving in the SFSG, one of the worlds Elite units. Past players such as Spencer Pullinger, Neil Furminger and Colin Powney have served for their country and on a few occasions there have been some very talented Fijians turning out for the club who have come to Seaford on leave with SRFC players.
There is "The best" atmosphere at the club, especially on televised match days and after the game in the club house where an open invite is offered to the public.

Location

Just a few hundred metres from the Seafront of Seaford

Seaford, East Sussex

Seaford is a coastal town in the county of East Sussex, on the south coast of England. Lying east of Newhaven and Brighton and west of Eastbourne, it is the largest town in Lewes district, with a population of about 23,000....

, lies the Salts Recreational Grounds and the building which is owned by SRFC, this is where "The Spartans" do battle at the ground known as the fortress. Seaford is a Cinque Ports town, and was famously visited by King Henry VIII in his reign. The town has also produced three Prime Ministers.
Life Members

G. Blatch
I. Newby
D. R. Cleaton OBE
E. A. Pugh
Mrs. J. Goodman
M. Sellars
R. L. Hayes
D. Stevens
C. W. Hill
G. Thompson
D. R. Hill
P. Ungoed

Vice Presidents

G. J. Beal
J. Bird
M. Cockburn
M. Cornford
R. Debril
P. Ditch
G. Flynn
T. Govett
A. Hutchinson
A. Lamberth
M. Lovesay
D. Marshall
T. Matthews
D. Nash
I. Nathan
T. Newby
J. Olley
J. Owlett
M. Parker
J. Peerless
S. Powney
S. Rhodes
D. Scudder
R. G. Shed
C. Sheppard
R. Sillett
A. Smith
J. Squires
C. Tucknott
J. Turner
L. Twelftree
S. Twelftree
J. Vara
A. Walker

Youth Rugby

On September 11, 2005, a youth section was created, nicknamed "Seaford Storm" and coached by members of the starting XV (over 20s). This was especially pleasing for the town, as, especially due to the World Cup victory in 2003 by England, young, would-be rugby stars were increasingly in the mood to play the game, but the nearest local side was situated in Lewes

Lewes

Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...

, a full fifteen miles away.

The team have been together since September 10, 2005, when the first training session was held and over 40 budding Rugby players arrived (from ages of 12 through 15). Although this number has decreased on average, the number of paying members (£40 for up to two children and two parents) fluctuates week to week, along with new people attending the initialliy-free sessions.

They are not entered in a league, due to their relative inexperience as a team, however, many of the players have been playing since year 7 (in school years). They were close to being entered for their second season (06-07), but eventually it turned out that it is more likely that (07-08) will see the Seaford Storm in a Sussex league.

The first season

The first match, against Burgess Hill

Burgess Hill Rugby Football Club

Burgess Hill Rugby Football Club or BHRFC, known as the Sussex All Blacks, is a rugby union club in Sussex, England. The team currently fields a 1st XV in the Sussex Spitfire 1 league, and a 2nd XV in the Sussex 'Oranjeboom' 2 West league....

, was an "Under 15s" match, and features mostly players that attend Seaford Head Community College

Seaford Head Community College

Seaford Head Community College , in the town of Seaford, East Sussex, England, is a co-educational comprehensive school for students aged 11 to 16 years....

, though some players attended Tideway school, in neighbouring Newhaven.

Burgess Hill

The match ended 19-5 to Seaford. Two tries came from Lee Baker, one converted and not; the other try was provided from James Johnson in the first minutes of the match. In what turned out to be the last play of the match, after five minutes or so of heavy forward pressure Burgess Hill dived over for a consolation unconverted try.

The match was originally scheduled to be an U15s match, though only U14s had turned up for Burgess Hill. Turning to the referee (also BHRFC's youth coach), some U16 players who were training were enlisted to play, and during the match the majority of players on the Burgess Hill side were sixteen years old (with eight).

Hellingly

Seaford Storm's second match was a sometimes messy but overall impressive victory. In torrenting rain Seaford won by some twenty points to five.

Hastings

On the 26th March, 2006, Seaford RFC played their third match with four weeks until the end of the Rugby Union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 Season. In a previously unannounced match, Seaford faced an experienced and high-quality team in the form of Hastings. Seaford had been together for sixth months compared to Hastings's years.

As underdogs they played as if this was not true, but in the end lost the match to a more experienced team. Hastings scored 24 to Seaford's 17.

Burgess Hill II

One week after the Hastings match Seaford played their first ever rematch (and their final game of the season, the same opposition to which the played on the first day) against Burgess Hill at BH RFC's homeground. They lost that match, which was against the U16s side (SRFC were U15 at the time).

The second season

The '06/'07 season training began on the 3rd of September, 2006 and continues every Sunday from 10 AM - (approximately 12 PM).

The loss of enthusiasm

A few weeks into the training sessions the state of the club and morale of the players seemed to be at an all-time low with sessions slowing in pace, attitude and enthusiasm. A number of ultimatums were proposed and eventually a match against a large local team was arranged. The week before this match two coaches returned from an absence to coach the backs; this was the first time that season that a separate session for forwards and backs had taken place. Andy and Henry learnt the backs a number of moves which the adult first team use as well; for universal moves between the teams so that when players became old enough to play for the adult team they would know the moves already.

The moves are: m1, s1, s2 and d3. They will not be explained as this would defeat the purpose of them being codes, although their names are logical. In the session the backs did line outs the entire time, lifting players for the first time in their rugby careers (the law in England is that only pupils of year 11 and over may lift in line outs).

The training session was seen to restore any wavering faith in the players and all were said to be excited for Seaford's first match of their second season.

Lewes

On October the 22nd, 2006, widely regarded as Seaford Storm's most important and 'biggest' match to date, the side that had dominated the East Sussex league

Sports league

League is a term commonly used to describe a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an...

, Lewes

Lewes

Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...

, and had a number of its players signed up to the county (Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

) played Seaford at their home ground in the Salts recreation ground. However, six of their usual starting players were at a Sussex training session. (It is notable that James Halpin who had played for Sussex previously played for Lewes and scored a try.) Seaford, too, was missing some of its (arguably poor) starting players and some remaining players had to fill in gaps elsewhere in the team. Keith Philpott, for example, played as number 14 (Winger). Daniel Tolhurst played in Scrum Half position.

The match ended 27-0 to Lewes, but the general feeling amongst the players and those who attended the match (Seaford's largest ever draw of spectators, including teenagers from the town to families of players and interested onlookers alike) was that Seaford played extremely well and played equal to or better than their hugely respected opponents.

All of Lewes' tries came from stopped-play from the five-metre line and usually just broke through the Seaford defence, using sheer bodymass and velocity.

Seaford did not score but a few runs were made from the little ball supplied to the backs (with inhibited positions) and the forwards often charged forward gaining metres every time. In polar opposition to the player's thoughts before the match, tackling was successful in nearly every case with only a few missed tackles from either side (Lewes' tackles were not always made, in contrast to the prediction made by the Seaford players and coaching staff). The match was played in a very 'end-to-end' style which is what many consider to be an entertaining rugby match.

Although Lewes racked up the points and the win, it was viewed as a success for the Seaford team and their most significant match and reinforced their ambitions. The match was thought to have shown their "quality of playing and teamwork, furthering the club's reputation," by the players, staff and spectators and most associated with the club.

Heathfield

Seaford Storm are scheduled a home match against Heathfield on the 19th of November, 2006 at the Salts.

Burgess Hill III

Seaford Storm are to play Burgess Hill a third time since their beginning, on the 3rd of December 2006.

Squad

The following is the list of players and their positions in Seaford's latest match (Lewes first XV, 22 October 2006). (Nicknames, if any, inside brackets.):

• • 1. Loosehead Prop - Brad
  • 2. Hooker - Shaun Fortes (Badger)
  • 3. Tighthead Prop - Henry Charlesworth
  • 4. Lock - Sam Cole
  • 5. Lock - Matt
  • 6. Blindside Flanker
    Flanker (rugby union)
    A flanker is a position in the sport of rugby union. Flankers play in the forwards, and are generally classified as either blindside, or openside flankers; numbers six and seven respectively. The name comes from their position in a scrum in which they flank each set of forwards...
    
     Ross Walker
  • 7. Openside flanker
    Flanker (rugby union)
    A flanker is a position in the sport of rugby union. Flankers play in the forwards, and are generally classified as either blindside, or openside flankers; numbers six and seven respectively. The name comes from their position in a scrum in which they flank each set of forwards...
    
     - Harry Polling
  • 8. Number Eight - James Johnson (JJ)
  • 9. Inside Half (Scrum half) - Daniel Tolhurst*
  • 10. Outside Half (Fly half) - Ollie Wiseman
  • 11. Left Wing - Liam Hawes (Halibut)
  • 12. Inside Centre - Luke Labern (Labern)
  • 13. Outside Centre - Matt G.
  • 14. Right Wing - Keith Philpott*
  • 15. Full Back - Adam Garner (Rat)

(Asteriks mark notable position change.)

Regular members are:

Forwards

• Henry Charlesworth
• Harry Polling
• James Johnson
• Shaun Fortes
• Matthew
• Keith Philpot
• Ross Walker

Backs

• Lucas Labern
• Daniel Tolhurst
• Kevin Mulpeter
• Liam Hawes
• Adam Garner

Other members do not turn up consistently or are have not played, are new or have not expressed desire/quality to be listed.

External links

• Seaford RFC official RFU page