Sussex Rugby - Heathfield & Waldron RFC - Heathfield & Waldron Boars 33 Hellingly 2nd's 27

	Saturday, April 08, 2006

Heathfield & Waldron Boars 33 Hellingly 2nd's 27

Boars Win Decider

A free weekend allowed these two Division 3 east side met for the third time this season only two weeks after their last battle. As the honours had been shared in the regular season this would be the match that settled the 'bragging rights' for the year.

Both sides were missing several regulars but Hellingly seemed to hurt more as they only fielded 13 players until a latecomer turned up at half-time. The Boars decided that it was sporting to leave well alone as Hellingly were due to play down the Waldron slope in the first half and the 'man mountain' Ripley was in their side.

The tone for the afternoon was set at the first scrummage when Heathfield were buckled and pushed back 5 yards on their own put in. Hellingly had brought a real front row to this contest and it showed. Hellingly's early pressure paid off when they scored a converted try after about 10 minutes. This woke the Boars up and Andy Feaver in his first game of senior rugby collected a kick and ran 30 metres before being hauled down. This set up good field position and that pressure led to a try by Guy Ellery. Kenny Lewis hit the post with the conversion attempt.

The Boars then had a period of good play that saw them extend their lead. A maul on the Hellingly 10 metre line saw Mike MacLeod in the unusual role of scrum half get a pass away to Brady Burdett who drew two men to him before offloading to the genuine scrum half, Dave Rhodes, who was moonlighting as a centre. Rhodes ran a lovely angle to break the defensive line and then beat the full back for pace to score near the posts. Lewis converted easily.

About this time the pressure in the scrums took its toll on Steve Lester who went off with a calf injury to be replaced by 64 year old Brian Burdett. For some reason the scrums went uncontested and Brian went to full back with Paul 'What am I meant to do?' Squires trying out as hooker.

After all this fun it was no real surprise when Hellingly levelled the scores when Luke barged 10 metres through several weak tackles to score in the famous 'bottom right hand corner'. This try was not converted and the half ended tied at 12-12.

Heathfield came out the traps very quickly as Hellingly failed to deal with the high restart kick and Guy Ellery nipped in to score his second try which was easily converted by Lewis. Again Hellingly came back with good forward work driving them into the Boars 22-metre line where they were awarded a penalty. A quick tap found the Boars defenders slacking and a gap was found for a converted try to be scored.

Each side scored two more tries and tellingly Kenny Lewis kicked both conversions while his opposite number missed his kicks. Tom Faulkner-Bryant took the first of the Heathfield tries with a strong run past the full back and scored under the posts after Mike Barber had cunningly switched the play back inside.

The best try of the day was saved to last when the 'first time hooker' Paul Squires did what he was told by Brady Burdett and ran an inside line to take Brady's offload and make 22 metres before scoring between the posts. This was Paul's first try since converting from Australian Rules Football less than a year ago. Good on ya Cobber!

So the Boars have the bragging rights and Hellingly have the "If only we had played a full side it would have been different" defensive retort. All in all this was a very good end to a very good series of matches.

Squad - M. MacLeod, A. Sutton, S. Lester (B. Burdett snr - 30), B. Togher , S. Walker, B. Taylor, K. Lewis, T. Faulkner-Bryant, D. Rhodes, B. Burdett, M. Barber, G. Ellery, A. Feaver, M. Gardiner, P. Squires

Report by: Mike MacLeod

Steve Lester goes airborne!

Kenny Lewis lines up a conversion

The teams battle for lineout possession

Boars Kenny Lewis, Paul Squires and Mike MacCleod

Mike MacCleod, Mark Gardiner and Brian Burdett

Latest News | The Boars
4/8/2006 12:43:47 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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