Heathfield U14 – East Coast Champions

Heathfield U14 departed for the distant shores of…. err….  Norwich on Friday morning for their end-of-season tour; in good spirits but with a number of players unavailable or injured. We arrived late afternoon  in Norwich under a cover of fairly thick mist and cold conditions and decided to warm up using the time-honoured and traditional touring methods. Available at the bar!

Saturday start of tournament

The tournament format was a “try fest” with no conversions and 12.5 minute halves. Heathfields opponents for the day were Middlesbrough, Cheshunt and Oakham (Leicester).

Middlesbrough
Heathfield started slowly and allowed a very useful Middlesbrough side packed with very large forwards and backs to dominate. Their backs in particular were quick and quite large and managed to score after about 5 minutes of play. This seemed to stir the Heathfield U14 beast a little and from the kick-off there was an obvious greater urgency from the players. This led to an incisive run from Gareth Lloyd at outside centre, who dummied and stepped his way through four attempted tackles to score under the posts. Half time soon arrived and it was with great trepidation that Jasper Wrenn, the squads injured captain was brought on. This had an immediate effect on the pack which began to gain dominance over the MB pack. An excellent scrum win allowed the backs to move the ball to give George Bending, on the wing, a run down the line to score a relieving try to take the lead. The match was still very much in the balance with Heathfield defending well to prevent the MB backs from breaking free. However, with 2 minutes left of the match and Heathfield with a lineout on the MB 5m line, the ball was swiftly moved to Gareth, who had switched places with inside centre Travis Parsons, to run a loop, draw the last defender and dummy to George and cut back to score close to the post.
Heathfield win 15 – 5.

­Cheshunt
Heathfield were now “warmed up” and started this match fully fired up. After 2 minutes Heathfield crossed the Cheshunt line for the first time after some sweeping play taking the ball right, then left and back to the right wing again. This resulted in Henry Ross receiving the ball with a big overlap which he decided he didn’t need as he crashed over to score. The next score started from our 22m line when Jasper took quick ball from a ruck, went about 20 and kicked for touch. Heathfield won the lineout with Lewis Golding going 40m before being brought down close to the try-line. A series of rucks eventually saw Freddy Jones pick up and drive through to score. This brought up the half-time whistle.
The second half started with a number of changes to the team but not to the attitude and commitment on display. Tim Farrell scored from excellent  possession and continuity, Will Morris from a lineout 5m into the Cheshunt half with Heathfield driving and rucking in a series of phases and finally Henry Ross from a cross-field kick from Harry Reilly that ended up in a ruck near the try-line that Henry Ross gathered and grubbered through to fall on the ball. Unfortunately an injury Gareth meant he was to play no further part in the tournament having played some sublime rugby up to this point!
Heathfield win 30 – 0.

Oakham
This was the Alex Borg match… fastest prop in the east!
From the kick-off, Henry Ross fielded the ball and popped to Alex who proceeded to step and hand-off half a dozen Oakham players on his way to the line. Indeed, Alex was so excited he almost dropped the ball 5m from the line with no defenders left to beat! Next was a lineout on our 10m line. Catch by Henry, peel by Greg Pearce, pop to Alex and he was away again scoring close to the posts. Not to be outdone, Harry Reilly took the ball from the Heathfield 10m line dummied and accelerated and was past the defence to score under the posts.
The second half was more of the same. A minute after the restart and directly from a lineout catch, Alex again burst straight through the cover defence to score his third of the match. He was promptly substituted!. Next Will Morris got in on the act from a tap penalty 20m from the try-line. No one really had it in them to stop him and he crashed over for another try. Kieran Burdett  was next with a quick tap from a penalty 15m out and was able to step his way to the try-line. Finally Will again, this time targeting the number 10 who made a brave attempt at a tackle but failed, as did a couple more tacklers left will just able to make the line.
Heathfield win 35 – 0.

End of day one. Scored 16 tries and conceded 1. We were the overnight leaders, being the only side to be unbeaten.

Sunday – day 2

Heathfields opponents for the day were Worthing and Norwich.

Worthing
Heathfield started the match playing some scintillating rugby with forwards and backs combining beautifully to score 3 tries without reply by half time. From a scrum on the Worthing 10m line, Zach Llamas picked, gained good yards, set up a ruck and from there Lewis Golding was able to pick up and smash through the remnants of the Worthing defence. Next, the ball went down the line superbly to a ruck. Kieran stepped a couple of tackles from the ruck and the ball went back down the line to George Bending, now playing at centre, who was able to saunter over to score in the corner.. Finally, after 2 against-the-head scrum wins in a row (the count ended up at 5 against the head that half), the ball was fed to Jack Koops on the wing to put in a great burst of speed and a step to beat the last defender to score.
With a raft of changes in the second half, Worthing came back strongly in a good passage of play to score 2 excellent tries which left all the Heathfield players and parents just a bit nervous for the final few minutes. Heathfield managed however to hold out for a well deserved win. Louis Chavannes was concussed in a tackle in this match and would take no further part in the tournament.
Heathfield win 15 – 10.

Norwich
Heathfield, still unbeaten, now had an unassailable lead at the top of the league table which meant we would go through to the main cup final regardless of the outcome of this match. There was, however, considerable pride to play for! Heathfield took to the field with a makeshift side with a combination of preserving players where possible, getting good game time for everyone in the squad and a long injury list.
The game started with Norwich taking the game to Heathfield and were camped for pretty much the entire first half in Heathfield’s half. Only some absolutely stunning defensive work from everyone on the pitch, particularly George, Zach and Kieran on the wing prevented Norwich from scoring during this period. These were nervy times but the players showed the same grit and determination as the previous weeks outstanding defensive performance against Saracens.
The second half was to have a similar script to the first. Outstanding defence with the occasional foray into Norwich territory was the order of the day. However, with 5 minutes to go and a raft of changes to try and tip the balance of play, Heathfield managed to alleviate some of the pressure with some fantastic scrummaging from the front row of Lewis Golding, Max Ellery and Alex Borg, the like of which I have not seen at this level. Norwich’s front row was lifted in the scrum a number of times through technique and power from Heathfield and this meant they were unable to exert any more pressure for the remainder of the match. Tim Farrell was concussed in this match and would take no further part in the tournament.
Heathfield draw 0 – 0.

And so to the final which was to be played against Middlesbrough on Norwich’s first team pitch (a very nice ground by the way with some excellent pitches). This match was 15 minutes a half.

Heathfield were fired up for the final against a much bigger side in general. Large forwards and some very exciting (and large) backs. They knew from the previous days match what trouble this Middlesbrough side could cause and ensured there was no recurrence of the MB early score of the previous day. Indeed, Heathfield completely dominated play in this first half with an awesome display of scrummaging power. The first try came about from a DSP making good yards from the Heathfield 10m line. The ball was recycled quickly left to find Jamie Wardle in the line. Jamie stepped and handed off two would be tacklers to score a real tension busting try. This seemed to fire up an already fired up Heathfield side. Next a great scrum win against the head saw the ball nicely moved down the line to George who proceeded to chip the oncoming defence. He easily outpaced the back-pedalling defence and wasn’t to be denied by the bounce of the ball to score an excellent try in the corner. The final passage of play of the half saw a similar move to George’s score. Another astute chip ahead by George saw a ruck formed close to the try-line. Travis Parsons was first to the breakdown in good support of George and was able to pick-up and dive over for his first try of the tournament.
The second half saw Middlesbrough dominate for the first 5 minutes. During this period of pressure, they managed to put together a number of good phases which culminated in Heathfield giving away penalties. From a quick tap, MB was able to get the ball wide to their speedy winger who outpaced the covering defence to score in the corner. Heathfield did not however, let this disrupt the game they had been playing. Instead, some excellent defensive work from Dean Pennell and great covering and support by all the players saw Heathfield again take control of the match. Harry Reilly kept MB pinned in their half with some astute kicks and it was from a series of these kicks and subsequent line-outs that Heathfield moved from their try-line to the MB try-line. A good lineout win on the MB throw and subsequent ruck saw Kieran Burdett snip on the blind side and score in the corner. There was about a minute left of play before the final whistle went to some ecstatic scenes.
Heathfield win 20 – 5.

Tour Stats

4/14/2009 9:17:41 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)