Sussex Rugby - Heathfield & Waldron RFC - Robertsbridge 48 Heathfield Boars 12

	Saturday, March 04, 2006

Robertsbridge 48 Heathfield Boars 12

Bridge Batter Brave Boars

League leaders Robertsbridge are always tough opponents but the Boars went into this league game on the back of 3 consecutive victories. As the teams warmed up it was clear that Robertsbridge were on average a stone and a half heavier in weight and a decade younger than their opposite number in the Heathfield team. Boars' manager, Mike Macleod, suggested that the Boars could draw on the example set by the Scots last Saturday. For some reason this was not a universally popular suggestion.

Boars' captain Kenny Lewis won the toss and chose to play with the wind in the first half. From the kick off Robertsbridge took the game to Heathfield with pace and aggression. The Boars just managed to weather the first 10 minutes with Burdett kicking several superb clearances. Dogged Heathfield defence kept scores level for 20 minutes until Robertsbridge broke the deadlock in controversial fashion when the referee declined to penalise what looked like crossing on the 22 metre line. This took two Heathfield defenders out of position and the Robertsbridge forwards punished this by setting up good ruck ball and then driving over between the posts for a converted try. This was followed 5 minutes later by an unconverted try following slack defending.

At this point it looked like the Robertsbridge steamroller would just rack up the points and it might be 'game over' by halftime. However the Heathfield forwards looked at each other and put all they had into the game. From the kick off Robertsbridge infringed at the ruck and Burdett kicked well to the 5-metre line. The line out was tapped back to Mike Jaques who gathered a bouncing ball very well before suppling quick ball to Burdett. Guy Ellery then ran a decoy run that gave Burdett the chance to make a few yards before passing to Mike Barber who then gave newcomer Warren Harris a chance in the right hand corner. Harris did very well to twist out of a tackle and place the ball down for a try. This heartened Heathfield, as it was clear that the backs could make ground if the forwards could win ball.

Five minutes later another Burdett kick took play into the opponents 22. Lewis caught the line out ball and the Boars pack got a maul rolling. This was held up on the 5-metre line but Jacques got the ball out to Burdett who dummied the pass to Ellery and instead gave an inside ball to Mike Barber who stayed strong and fast enough to break 3 attempted tackles and score near the posts. Kenny Lewis converted to level the scores and Boars began to hunt for the ball with renewed vigour.

Unfortunately the next score went to Robertsbridge when Burdett bought an outrageous dummy from the Bridge inside centre who went past to score an unconverted try. This was followed shortly after by a well worked forward try as Bridge went through several phases of 'pick up and drive' and overran the Boars defence. This brought up a half time score of 22-12.

This was as good as it got for Heathfield as an 'animated' Robertsbridge teamtalk, the advantage of the wind and the loss of the Heathfield captain to a broken nose all conspired to pin Heathfield back in their own half for long periods of time. The Boars continued to tackle bravely but leaked four tries in a second half dominated by Robertsbridge. Most of the damage being done by the hard working Robertsbridge forwards.

Tackle of the match was when centre Mike Barber cleanly felled the Robertsbridge number 7, a man twice his size. The 'Man of the Match' award went to Brady Burdett for great kicking and pulling the attacking strings whenever it was possible.

The Boars left the pitch with their pride intact and go on to play East Grinstead 4's at home.

Squad - M. MacLeod, J. La Roche, S. Lester, P. Hookway, A Sutton, S. Walker, K. Lewis (K. Davies -60), B. Taylor, M. Jaques, B. Burdett, M. Barber, G. Ellery, W. Harris (S. Hollingsdale - 75), P. Fitzgerald

Report by Mike MacLeod

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3/4/2006 10:29:13 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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