Sussex Rugby - Heathfield & Waldron RFC - Heathfield 2nds v Uckfield 2nds at Uckfield

	Monday, February 26, 2007

Heathfield 2nds v Uckfield 2nds at Uckfield

Sat 24th Feb 2007

This game was played in excellent spirits on a pitch which in places would have been better suited to mud wrestling rather than a game of rugby.

After 10 minutes it was difficult to tell one team from another which at times caused confusion in defence. More about that later.

Heathfield started off the stronger with good passing and linking up between forwards and backs. It wasn’t long before Ian Schleider with the help of the pack touched down from a driving maul. The conversion was missed 0-5

Soon after the re-start Uckfield returned the favour. Following a missed tackle in mid-field Uckfield found themselves camped on Heathfields try line and following some tenacious driving around the fringes and some dubious tackling they crashed over for an unconverted try 5-5

From the re-start Heathfield applied the pressure again and Peter Phillipou, recently returned from University, intercepted a pass from Centre to Centre and scored under the posts. The conversion was missed 5 – 10 and only 12 minutes had elapsed.

16 minutes passed whilst everyone just got a bit muddier and then Uckfield with some good barn storming runs and some missed Heathfield tackles scored under the posts. Again the conversion was missed, in fact during all the conversion attempts the touch judges were more in danger of being decapitated than any points being scored. 10 – 10

Half time came and went and for the next 20 minutes Heathfield tried and tried again to cross the Uckfield try line without success. Uckfield managed to relieve the pressure just the once with a kick to the Heathfield 22. From the lineout Heathfield won the ball. This is where it all got a bit confusing.

A player emerged from the side of the maul and ran across the pitch. From the stands, due to the thick coating of mud, no one could tell if it was an Uckfield or Heathfield player. The big clue was when the player turned and started running towards the Heathfield posts. The Heathfield players were slow to react still obviously confused and missed at least 5 tackles allowing the now exposed Uckfield player to score to the left of the posts. Yes..the conversion was missed 15 – 10

Heathfield never give up, and again they camped on the Uckfield line. With seconds to go all appeared lost but from a lineout the ball went through several phases before a driving maul again saw Ian Schleider score to the left of the posts 15 – 15

Chris English stepped up to take the kick, the last play of the game. With a swing of his right boot the ball rose up towards the posts and….. hit the cross bar and bounced out. Final score 15 – 15

“A fair result” was the feeling around the bar afterwards.

Heathfield: Nick Evans, Chris Jones (Capt), Bob Togher, Ben O’Neil, Tony Rose, Sean Dorril, Ian Schleider, Ollie Robertshaw, Christian, Chris English, Ross Riley, Peter Phillipou, Ben Woods, Dave Groom, Jack Bailey, Charlie Jones (40)

Development Team
2/26/2007 7:57:23 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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