Heathfield started their league campaign with a well earned win against a decent Worthing side.
The visitors started brightly but Worthing took the lead after a cruel bounce of the ball from a clearance kick enabled a nippy Worthing winger to intercept and sprint in under the posts.
This stirred the visitors into action and captain David Bayly led the way with some strong running and ferocious tackling to pin the home side back in their own half. Waves of attacking moves from the backs eventually came good when centre Harry Clewley took a great line between two opposition centres to score from 25 metres out.
Flying winger Joe Hastings added a second five minutes later with a trademark sprint to the corner as the backs began to really click and spin the ball out wide. Harry Clewley showed his kicking prowess with an amazing conversion from the left touchline.
As the visitors grew in confidence they applied yet more pressure on the home side and a solid scrum on the 22 metre line provided time and space for fly half Matt Barber to dummy the pass out, neatly sidestep his opposite number and drive through the tackle of the full back to score a well earned first try of the season.
The forwards were now taking full control and excellent driving play from locks Ben Smith and Alex Benson caused havoc in the opposition defence. Hooker Jack Fellows showed the speed and grace of his forbears in sprinting 40 metres down the right flank and although unlucky not to evade the covering tackles the ball was kept alive and quickly spun out to the left where Harry Clewley popped up again to crash over for his second try.
Heathfield knew that Worthing would give everything to get back on even terms and for the first part of the second half the home side played some excellent rugby, using their lineout to good effect. A penalty in midfield provided captain Bayly with a chance to give his defending troops a moment's rest and Harry Clewley stepped up to add three more points with a fine long range kick.
This stirred Heathfield on to another level and strong, direct running from forwards James Morrell, Sam Saunters and Will Maltby battered the home side backwards and gave quick ball for the midfield trio of scrum half Tom Faraone, Matt Barber and Harry Clewley to create exciting and unstoppable running rugby. Three more tries were added in this period with one from Clewley and two trademark bursts from Toby Warren who returned from injury to add yet more power to the back line in the final stages, all converted by Matt Barber.
Stong performances from all over the pitch contributed to this victory including very pleasing contributions from prop Ed Owen, centre Joe Sandford and a typical blockbuster performance from full back George Wardle who tackled and counter-attacked with equal efficiency.
The choice for the man of the match award was very close with displays of high individual skill from Matt Barber and Harry Clewley. However the award went to Captain David Bayly who was simply everywhere throughout the game with a true captain's performance from No. 8.
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9/28/2009 8:40:37 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
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