Baby Boars beat Hastings

The Boars went to Hastings for a top of the table clash full of apprehension and doubt yet returned elated and victorious. Much of the credit must go to the 6 young men from the Colts team who stepped up and out fought their much larger opponents. You know what to expect from a Hasting & Bexhill team. You get a committed hard working pack of large forwards with limited flair in the back division. This means you have to match them upfront or endure a match with very little possession.

The Boars arrived unable to field a legal front row so the scrums were uncontested from the start and a 10 point penalty ensued. Hastings opted to play into the wind and rain in the first half which added to the Boars need to score points. In very poor conditions there were plenty of mistakes and unforced errors from both sides but most of the play was taking place in the Hastings half as Burdett pinned the Blues down with some good kicking and some tricky runs. The Boars forwards were working well and Hastings found that their only effective weapon was the rolling maul. The Boars forwards worked to deny them that weapon by putting the runners down quickly.

Halfway through the first period a Burdett break created space on the right and a well timed pass put debutant Jake Donnebaer away for a score in the corner. This heartened the Boars and belief seemed to spread throughout the team. The only real drama in the rest of the half came when Hastings battered their way over the line and the referee awarded a try. This was overturned when it was politely pointed out that the line in question was the 5 metre line.  Unfortunately Burdett went off at this point to be replaced by Woods.

The second half began much as the first ended with the wind providing an advantage and Hastings pounding at the Boars defensive line. The arrival of Robertshaw at number 8 added a new vigour to the Boars as he put in crunching tackles and chased kicks.

Veteran scrum half Dave Rhodes began to run the show when the Boars were in possession and Hollingdale almost scored off a quickly taken tap penalty. Then from another Hollingdale burst up the right the Boars forwards retained the ball and Rhodes spun it into the path of Woods who timed his run beautifully to score between the posts. Woods converted the try to take the Boars to 12-0 on the pitch but only a slender 2 point lead after the uncontested penalty was added.

Hastings rumbled back and 10 minutes later had produced a 25 metre rolling maul to score near the posts. Crucially the kick was pushed wide but the Boars were still 3 points behind.

With 15 minutes to go a ball was won on the halfway line and spun left where Donnebaer and Huxter were up against a single defender. Huxter drew the defender before passing to Donnebaer who backed himself for pace and went on to score in the corner. The Boars were back in front with 15 minutes to go.

Hastings threw all they had at the Boars (and this seemed to include several 2nd team players who were available after their game had been called off) but this largely consisted of crash balls around the fringes and these were dealt with by some brave Boars defence plus some big clearances from Woods. The rain turned to sleet as the light faded but it was the Hastings hopes of winning the game that were ended when the referees whistle went and the Boars and their band of supporters who celebrated.

This was one of the sweetest victories ever tasted by the Boars and doing so with 6 youngsters (Bird, Cannella, Dorrill, Robertshaw, Donnebaer and Salmon) shows the strength in depth of the Heathfield & Waldron club and gives great hope for the future.

Every Boars player can hold their heads high but Man of the Match was Joe Cannella for a gutsy and dynamic performance in his first senior match.

Boars Team – M. MacLeod, D. Bird, P. Hookway (S. Walker -60), J. Cannella, T. Rose, S. Dorrill (O. Robertshaw – 40), K. Lewis, T. Wates, D. Rhodes, B. Burdett (R. Woods – 35), S. Hollingdale (J. Henry – 75), L. Willis, K. Davies (Nick Huxter – 40), J. Donnebaer, J. Salmon

Match report by Mike MacLeod

12/3/2007 11:23:49 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)