Despite appalling weather conditions a large crowd gathered at Cross in Hand to watch the Heathfield and Waldron Under 13s take on local rivals Hellingly in the first League encounter of the season.

All the hard work in training started to pay off as Heathfield took control of the game from the first whistle. Much of the first quarter was spent on the Hellingly 22 metre line

but despite creating numerous chances they could not turn them into points. Eventually the breakthrough came when the Heathfield pack drove for the line with some very dynamic rucking from the two Sams, Keylock and Saunters which forced an infringement from Hellingly. Full Back Matthew Barber stepped up and coolly slotted the penalty.

This lifted the Heathfield spirits and forwards and backs enjoyed a spell of territory and possession during which they played some of their best rugby of the season so far. Half back pairing Ollie Kent and David Bayly combined well and provided an excellent platform for the centres to attack with both Andrew Horsfall-Turner and captain Toby Warren making some strong and very direct runs through the Hellingly defence it looked like only a matter of time before one of them would score.

Yet Heathfield seemed to make hard work of it and as much as the forwards dominated they held onto the ball just a little too long and the final scoring pass eluded them. Relief came on the stroke of half time when a quick ball from the base of the scrum allowed fly half  David Bayly to run one of the club moves, dummying to his inside centre and executing a well timed switch with Toby Warren who burst straight through three tackles to score in the corner. Barber added the conversion from a tight angle and as the teams turned round for the second half Heathfield started to relax a little and play a more controlled game.

Hellingly came back strongly in the opening stages of the second half and their front five made some strong surges through the middle of the pitch which Heathfield did well to contain. The home side were clearly very determined not to let their opponents back into it and the backs in particular showed maturity as they handled the ball extremely well in the wet conditions. Full back Barber showed how to turn defence into attack as he cleanly took a high ball in his own half and opened up the play by cutting through the Helljngly midfield with a jinking run which stopped just short of the try line. In the ruck which followed powerhouse prop Bruno Halit was unstoppable as he took a quick pop pass and smashed through from five metres out. Barber again converted to create an unassailable lead.

In the closing stages it looked as though the floodgates would open as the Heathfield backs created numerous chances but to their immense credit Hellingly kept going and tackled their hearts out right to the final whistle.. Flanker George Wardle almost crowned an excellent performance with a try but the referee judged  a double movement in grounding the ball on the line.

All round an excellent first league win with particularly fine performances from newcomers Daniel Halls and Oscar Lacey and a welcome return to the fold for Ben Smith. The man of the match award went to Matthew Barber for his all round game and excellent kicking display in the difficult conditions.

Report by Mike Barber

10/22/2006 8:45:04 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)