Sussex Rugby - Heathfield & Waldron RFC - Heathfield 2nds 36 Horsham 3rds 0

	Saturday, January 20, 2007

Heathfield 2nds 36 Horsham 3rds 0

This cup quarter final saw a much changed Heathfield 2^nd team, with a variety of the regulars having other commitments. However this gave opportunities to some new faces who grasped it with both hands. Horsham arrived confidently having convincingly knocked Heathfield Boars out in the last round. Yet from the off, Heathfield magnificently lead by skipper for the day the replacement Chris Jones managed to dominate the game. Sticking to the game plan of moving the ball around, maintaining a high pace and keeping the ball away from Horsham’s big forwards, Heathfields pressure had to count. And it did! After 10 minutes when Matt Skinner broke through in the centres to run in under the posts from the halfway line, this was converted by Will Drinkwater.

There followed a typical Jack Bayley try, playing at openside in a backrow unit that performed excellently throughout the game and created the platform for most of Heath’s successful attacking moves. From broken play he seized the ball and managed to run in from the 22 metre line with Drinkwater again making the conversion. Just 5 minutes later after excellent drives from the Heath forwards on the right, the ball was swept along the backline to Rob Such on the wing who beat two tacklers for an superb try in the corner.

Heath’s forwards continued to drive into Horsham, with all the front 5 putting strong combative performances in. Just before half time after some excellent ground gained by Evans and Jones the backs broke out on the left, Drinkwater ran a wide arc then put a delicate kick through for his backs to chase. Debutant Miles Hearsey managed some fancy footwork himself dribbling the ball over the try line for a fine score. Heathfield ended the first half 24 – 0 up.

It was always going to be tough playing into the wind in the second half and it took a while for Heathfield to take control of the game. However, Shaun Dorrell a colt in his debut senior game playing at no 8, started to impose himself on the game. He made some excellent individual breaks setting up great field positions. It was from a ruck on the halfway lane he managed to peel off, slip several tackles and his pace took him through on towards the try line. He was tackled just short, but managed to stay on his feet and release a pop pass to Matt Skinner who went over for his second try of the day, Drinkwater converted.

Throughout the match Heath’s backrow pressurised the Horsham breakdown and tackled them into submission. It was from some of this harassing play that Heath turned the ball over in their own half, then, with 2 carries from Matt Skinner and Levi Willis saw them put Drinkwater in for a try in the corner and take his tally for the game to 11 points.

Overall, it was an excellent team performance that sees Heathfield through to the semi-final in 2 weeks time at home. It was difficult to single out a man of the match after such a good team performance, however as part of an excellent backrow and in his best performance of the season Ian Schleider took the award.

Report by Shaun Hipgrave

Development Team
1/20/2007 6:24:28 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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