Heathfield travelled to Crowborough having narrowly beaten them in a home friendly a month ago and ran out thoroughly convincing winners through their hard working and aggressive pack. Matthew Halls had an outstanding game scoring 5 of the 6 tries scored using his strength and speed.

The scrums were relatively evenly matched but Crowborough were never really allowed to create any phases as Captain Imran Iqbal and Theo Grant in the centres snuffed out any attack. The back row of Greg Salmon, Dayle Hollands and Halls were everywhere and this resulted in the visitors easily containing their Crowborough counterparts.

Once in possession Heathfield rucked exceptionally well keeping the ball for long periods. Hooker Tom Keylock often found himself in midfield and linked well with the backs who all played intelligently.

Second rows Ben Darcy and Jake Tyler put in well over their fair share of tackles and protected the possession well. The distribution of the half backs Will Chipchase and Jeremy Burdett with Elliott Marshall in the second half was also key, as this ensured that the good ball was not wasted.

The first half was evenly contested but Crowborough had used up energy reserves by chasing the game too hard early on and Heathfield - using their substitutes well - ensured dominance throughout. Subs included Larry Platt in the second row and ‘Pudsey’ Pring at Prop, both of whom had aggressive driving games tacking the ball on.

Clever kicks into space behind the defence by wing Peter Phair kept the defence guessing. The backs were loving the glut of possession and it was Grant who scored way out on the left following a fine move, who stopped Halls getting all the scores. Burdett, Salmon and Halls (2) slotted the conversions.

Heathfield travel to Seaford on Sunday for their first friendly between the two clubs.

Report by: U14 Management

2/5/2006 8:25:39 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

Sunday saw Heathfield U16s looking for their first win of a difficult season.  Still to find the most effective line up Heathfield played with a reshuffled Back Row and a new role for the ever-svelte "Dainty" Dom Hodge at  Inside Centre.

The first 5 minutes were anxious ones for Heathfield as Crowborough immediately putting them under pressure from the boot of their Fly Half.  Baz Hunt found himself fielding a long kick from near his own line.  He fielded the ball made 5 metres where Crowborough gave away a penalty, Joseph Salmon put into touch just outside his 22.  

The next 10 minutes were  still played mainly in Heathfield’s half but as the game moved on they started to  believe in themselves and with aggressive running from Sean Dorrill,  Ollie Robertshaw, and Otto Tibbles all 3 leading from the front.   Heathfield forced the game into the Crowborough half giving Sean the chance to run in from 15 metres brushing of the attention of 4 or 5 players and score. The ball bounced off the posts from the conversion.

From the restart Heathfield attacked again with impressive driving mauls from the whole pack but with no real profit.  The rest of the half was played in a crotchety fashion with the both sides niggling at each other.  Anthony Hicks came on at Scrum Half to continue hounding Crowborough's opposite number. Crowborough continued to give Heathfield problems but some great tackling by Josh Jackson kept them at bay. 

After a strong half time talk Heathfield started playing with more direction.  With Dom Hodge taking some flat ball on the charge they were making ground on every attack.  Jake Donebar coming on at wing caught a speculative kick from the Crowborough Fly Half and punted the ball straight back giving Jack Layfield the chance to chase and disrupt.  Heathfield kept up the pressure and moved the ball wide to the left giving Jake the chance to run in for his first try of the season, Joseph slotting the conversion.

Crowborough had to face more of the same pressure and after another 5 minutes of good possession and some fine running from James Baurer.  Good possession was rewarded with Ollie Robertshaw was put through to score the third try with the conversion wide.

The last 5 minutes were played almost entirely in the Heathfield half with Crowborough determined to get on the score sheet. Big tackles were put in from Dave Radford and Lee Keylock with the Heathfield pack working hard for the ball for Joseph to kick clear giving the forwards chance to show their dominance in the lineout.

The final whistle blew as tempers frayed with the tension showing from both sides and Heathfield ran off winners 17 - 0.

The Heathfield Man Of The Match was Lee Keylock who put pressured the Crowborough Scrum Half relentlessly and tackled well above his weight and gave great service to the backs.

Tom "The Chairman"  Flory, Joseph "The Hitman" Salmon, Dan "Mr Bling"  Bird, "Dainty" Dom Hodge, Hussein "The Terminator" Nikoui, Josh  "The Tackle" Jackson, Jonathon "Clarkie"  Clark, Jake  "Shouldn't This Ball Be Round?" Donnebar, Josh "The Giant"  Henry, James  "The Speedster" Baurer, Ollie "That's Not My Dad Baiting The Ref" Robertshaw, Otto "Mine Neither" Tibbles, Tom "Thumb" Rickman, Sean "The Machine"  Dorrill, Baz  "The Mop" Hunt, Lee "The Mouth"  Keylock, Dave "Radders" Radford, Anthony "Mr Versatile" Hicks, Jack "The Beanstalk" Layfield 

Report by Chris Salmon

2/5/2006 5:27:37 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

The Development side are playing away at East Grinstead 3rd's with a 1245 kick-off.

The Boars are at home to Edenbridge 2nd's with a 1245 kick-off.

Posted by Nick Green

2/3/2006 7:15:08 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

This will now take place (at last!) on Saturday 11th February with a 2pm kick-off.

The game is being played as both the league game and cup fixture.

For those that really want to know (with thanks to Will Hole)...

"...the subs rule will be the same as the league. The result at full time will be the league result and the shield result, as long as a team has won.  If it is a draw at full time then the league result will be a draw and the shield will be played into extra time."

I hope that is clear!

Posted by Nick Green

2/3/2006 7:11:16 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

Heathfield playing without their 5 Sussex squad players, away on training, travelled the short trip to Hellingly. Unfortunately Hellingly only had 9 players. Heathfield lent the home side 4 players from their squad of 17 and enjoyed a fast and open 13-a-side match.

Captained by fly half Jeremy Burdett for the first time, the ball was run wide at every opportunity. Fantastic dive pass service for him from Will Chipchase saw tries came at a steady rate.

But it was the four players who had not yet scored for Heathfield who took the glory. Pacey wing Kyle van Rensburg bagged two.  Mobile prop Thomas "Pudsie" Pring also got 2. One of which saw him charge down a clearance kick, gather and run in.  Other wing Josh Eaton scored a clever try, cutting in of the left and using clever footwork to go in under the posts. Ben Darcy and his total commitment to the cause, earned him a well-deserved score rounding off a good move.

Other tries came from Oliver Hancock who scored two tries, unfortunately one was for Hellingly when he was playing for them. Greg Salmon smashed two Hellingly players near half way with aggressive tackling, collected the loose ball and then beat 3 players for pace to score under the posts.

Larry Platt also collected a hat trick of tries one of which he ran right across the pitch and then back again, leaving in his wake a mass of flailing arms and would be tacklers.

Other mentions must go to Jake Tyler playing at No.8 worked tirelessly all game and Luke Deacon playing in his 1st game for Heathfield was everywhere.

Heathfield travel to Crowborough next Sunday for their next League fixture of the season.

      Report by: U14 Management

1/29/2006 3:11:15 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

What a difference an '8' makes!

A frozen pitch at Crowborough saw the fixture moved to the Waldron pitch so Heathfield felt more at home than usual for an away game. The usual random assortment of players found themselves in a Boars shirt and it looked as if it would be another ragtag performance when the Crowborough no. 10 dummied Brady Burdett and ran 25 metres to score between the posts for an easily converted try.

However the Heathfield forwards started to dominate their opponents in the set pieces and win ball in the loose. Much was owed to an excellent performance from the back row in particular Tom Faulkner-Bryant at number 8. It took 20 minutes and a few close shaves before this domination was turned into points; but it was worth the wait. The forwards won decent ball around half way, Ben Taylor spun a pass to Burdett who passed to Evans, looped round for the return ball and in so doing created a few extra yards for winger Nick Sands to dash 40 metres and score in the top corner.

This reverse seemed to undermine Crowborough's confidence and must have contributed when born again centre Tim Evans took a ball on the halfway line and burst through some poor defensive tackles to score between the posts. Crowborough continued to work hard and tried to provide a platform for their dangerous looking backs but the Heathfield forwards hard work meant that any ball won was slow or scrappy.

Tom Faulkner-Bryant started to boss proceedings from number 8 and began to pick up and charge from the base of the dominant Heathfield scrummage. On one such instance he showed good strength to go over from 5 metre out for a nicely worked  'blind side' try. He also scored from 15 metres when he took a quick tapped penalty and carried at least two tacklers across the line with him. The half closed with Heathfield very happy to be leading 24-7

The second half was a continuation of the first with Heathfield dominant in the forwards and comfortable in the backs. 3 more tries ensued when Tim Evans bagged his second, Tom Faulkner Bryant his third and Jason La Roche scored his first of the season. The latter was the try of the match. Possession was won on halfway, thank you forwards, Burdett made a 10 metre break before passing to Evans who made another 10 metres before passing back to Burdett who drew the final defender and passed to hooker La Roche for the final 10 metre burst to the line. Nice hands and excellent support work gaining its reward.

A 39-7 win meant that Heathfield had several candidates for man of the match. Ben Taylor for a sound shift at scrum half, Kenny Lewis for his work rate and tackling and Brady Burdett for effectively spreading the play between backs and forwards. However 3 tries and an all round top performance saw Tom Faulkner-Bryant win his first MotM award of the season. The Boars could do with number 8 performances like this for the rest of the season.

Squad - R. Burchett, J. La Roche, S. Lester, P. Hookway, B. Ollie (C. North - 40), D. Wythe (A. Sutton - 35), K. Lewis (Capt) (L. Willis - 50), Tom Faulkner-Bryant, B. Taylor, B. Burdett, T. Evans, G. Ellery (M. MacLeod - 60), N. Sands, P. Fitzgerald (W. Harris - 40), J. Bailey

   Report by: Mike MacLeod

1/28/2006 7:24:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

On a very cold Saturday afternoon the Development XV played against Uckfield 2’s in a local derby at Heathfield.

There was a strong northerly wind coming across the pitch and during warm it was decided to play phased rugby through the scrum and for the backline to take the ball back into the pack to create sufficient space for the wings to run.

Uckfield came with a young and mobile pack and decided to play with the wind in their favour for the first half. From kick off we pressed hard and with excellent defence and rolling mauls created our first try. Uckfield however responded with a well worked move and charged down a kick on our try line to set up their opening try.

The pack then dominated all aspects of forward play with the front row setting the platform for our scrum to not only win our ball but pushing Uckfield back off theirs and creating turn over ball on a regular occasion. Mike Brown, Tom Pritchard and Chris Jones worked well as a unit and continuously crossed the advantage line with pick up and drives and running the ball at Uckfield’s fly half. Tony Rose worked hard in the line outs and caused chaos for Uckfield on their ball by taking it from them.

This allowed the backline to use crash balls back to Uckfield’s fly half and inside centre and with quick ball enabled our mobile back row to run off passes from Shaun Hipgrave.

There was some good positional kicking from Chris English who placed the ball behind Uckfield’s backline and allowed our dominating pack to catch and drive the ball from the lineout. A clever kick from the scrum half Shaun Hipgrave to a vacant left wing position allowed Peter Phillipou who was chasing in attack to time his run to perfection by catching the ball on the bounce and score a well worked try in the corner.

Uckfield used the possession they had to try and crash the ball from their inside centre through the middle however from excellent pressure in defence was tackled on every occasion and often he lost the ball in the tackle which allowed our pack to lay the platform for yet another surge in attack.

There were ten tries scored by Heathfield and even though Uckfield did respond with two of their own they were outclassed and out muscled in an all round  performance which has been the best of the season.

As there were ten tries scored I cannot remember who was responsible for all so apologies to those who did and are not mentioned (Too young to be an age thing!!) but congratulations to the whole team

Tries: M. Brown (2), A. Farrell (1), P. Phillipou (1), M. Gardener (1), P. Watton (1), J. Cummings – Yes a 50m run (1)

Conversions: C.English (5)

Team: M. Powderly (Rep – M. Fellows), C. Ambrosino, P. Watton ( Rep – C. Watton), T. Rose (K. Tonkin), J. Cummings, C. Jones, T. Pritchard, M. Brown, S. Hipgrave, C. English, D. Hesketh, A. Farrell, P. Phillipou, M. Gardener (Rep – D. Groom), B. Slay

Report by Duncan Hesketh

1/28/2006 3:00:51 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

This year the Seniors are touring to Ireland from the 19th to the 22nd May. 

The party will be staying in Cork City and be playing 2 games, one against Kinsale RFC with the other one currently TBA.

For more information please contact Ian Jenkins via Ian.Jenkins@marsh.com

Posted by Ian Jenkins

1/26/2006 2:31:51 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)     

A Vice President's lunch was held on Saturday prior to the Burgess Hill game with food prepared by Mel Crowe. VP lunches are held prior to most home league games in the Clubhouse with VP's contacted via email.

For any VP's who would like to know when the next lunch will be held or to add your email to the VP database please contact Club President Mike de St. Croix on Mikedestc@aol.com

Posted by: Nick Green

1/23/2006 6:23:02 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)