Heathfield travelled to Newbury for their annual National 10s Tournament on a bight and breezy (VERY EARLY!) Sunday morning and were greeted by a wonderful ground and exceptional 1st team pitch, complete with grandstand!
Heathfield started off playing against Harrow who presented us (and many other teams) with the problem of an inside centre who looked like he could have played for the colts! Heathfield lost this match 14 – 7 but actually came off the pitch feeling a bit aggrieved as they played the much better rugby. Not the best start to the tournament!
Next up was host team Newbury who we beat 12 – 7 but it was close! Heathfield were 12 – 0 up at half-time but relaxed noticeably to allow Newbury to come back at them and were relieved when the final whistle went.
The final pool match was against Devonport Services (Navy). We lost this one 19 – 0 and really were not at the races at all. It seemed at this point that the boys were a bit “jet-lagged” and suffering from the end of a long season!
And so to the knock-out stages…
Bournemouth were beaten fairly convincingly 19 – 0 with the team beginning to get their playing legs back again. There was certainly more drive and commitment in all phases of play above and beyond the previous match and the team started playing with pride again!
Heathfield faced Redingensians in the semi-finals and really got back into their playing “zone” for this match. An early try be Redingensians was matched by Heathfield who went on to score a second before half-time. Redingensians fought back strongly in the second half to register their second try to take the lead 14 – 12 with about 3 minutes left to play. Heathfield then managed to get a 30 metre rolling maul going which culminated in the ball being held up over the try-line. Heathfield managed to score from the ensuing scrum with the final whistle going on the failed conversion. That was a close shave with Heathfield winning 17 – 14 in the end.
The Plate Final was held on the Newbury 1st team pitch against the hosts, Newbury. Heathfield were now well and truly in the right frame of mind again. It seemed the knock-out stage of this tournament was the catalyst they needed! Heathfield started strongly and never really let the hosts into the game at any point. Heathfield’s first score was a penalty try for a high tackle against Henry Jolliffe when he was seemingly in the clear… perhaps a bit harsh but we weren’t going to argue the point with the referee! A second try followed before half time with Heathfield now commanding the game. The final try was a sublime dummy scissors between Henry J. and Fergus Diplock which completely fooled the opposition (and some of our own players including Fergus!) which allowed Henry to skirt through to seal the victory 17 – 0.
Well done all the players, and parents for this rather long day out!
Latest News | U14's
5/5/2009 8:02:22 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
|