Heathfield and Waldron 3rd team took to the field on Saturday somewhat depleted of numbers and with several players forced out of their regular position. They faced a Hove side with similar problems but it was Heathfield that rose to the challenge best.
Almost directly from the kick off , quick ball from the scrum and good hands from the backs saw Charlie Jones pick a good line in attack and jink his way to the corner for the first Heathfield try.
Shortly after this forwards and backs combined well and Chris Ambrasino, who was tackling ferociously around the park, demonstrated great skill with a little chip behind the defence for second row Mike Dilly to chase and touch down in the corner.
Even with heavy Heathfield pressure and good out of hand kicking from Fly Half Ben Cox, Hove were putting up a strong fight and made a break themselves in the backs for what looked like a certain try only to be held up over the line by a superb covering tackle from Will Chipchase.
Again good pressure from Will on the Hove fly half saw his kick go astray and find its way to Ian “chase me” Schlieder playing out of position on the wing. His recovery and quick pass found its way through several Heathfield hands and it was Mike Shallcross that made the final run past several tackles to score under the posts. Ben Cox duly finished the move off with the conversion.
Hove retaliated well and scored themselves soon after when Heathfield were too slow to react to a quick tap penalty.
The final score of the half came from Charlie Jones. Dave Rhodes who had moved to fly half after Heathfield lost Ben Cox to injury made a lovely dummy to full back Mike Shallcross on a decoy run and then picked out Charlie on an angle who carved up the defence to score.
The second half was very similar to the first. Heathfield looked strong ball in hand but Hove battled and tackled well and made breaks themselves to cause Heathfield problems. There was good running from Kenny “Forest” Lewis and Ian “chase me” Schlieder but it was Mike Brown’s pressure and positioning that eventually paid off as he scored two tries in quick succession. Mike Shallcross with the conversions.
A miss tackle saw Hove break and score their second try but Heathfield hit back again quickly with two tries both from quick tap penalties with fine running lines from Charlie Jones and Mike Shallcross.
Hove lost a player to the sin bin (not before time) late in the second half and Mike Brown completed his hat trick with a fine run to finish off the scoring.
Credit to Hove for the way they battled and never gave up but if Heathfield can continue like today to play simple rugby with quick ball and good support running they should hold there own in this competitive league.
Man the match was a close call with all the squad rallying together and playing well. Dave Rhodes directed the troops superbly, Mike Brown covered every inch of the pitch and scored three tries and Charlie Jones also scored three tries picking good lines for them all and produced some quality passing. However man of the match goes to Chris Amrasino for stepping up to prop when required and tackling like a man possessed.
Team: Chris Ambrasino, Jono Sharp , Mike Powderly, Craig Moir, Mike Dilley, Kenny Lewis, Sam Cooley, Mike Brown, Will Chipchase, Ben Cox (Nick Sands – 30), Ian Schlieder, Dave Rhodes, Charlie Jones, Billy Hickson, Mike Shalcross.
Match Report by Simon Hollingdale
Latest News | The Boars
9/19/2009 10:16:58 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
|