U14's secure a close but well fought win

We were due to play a friendly against Crowborough, however due to a misunderstanding on their part they could no longer field a side. Thanks to the quick work from Fixtures Guru Phil he arranged this match against Lewes who were promoted last season at the expense of Heathfield. Last year’s encounter was drawn at 24 points a piece. Could it be that close again . . .?

Lewes opted to kick off and Heathfield had the advantage of a tailwind, Will B successfully caught the ball and the forwards started with purpose securing ball and making early headway. It took a few minutes for Lewes to wake up but when they did the large pack began to move through the phases into Heathfield territory. The Lewes advance was only halted by an excellent clearance kick by Jake. From the resulting line out Mikey secured ball and the first cohesive attack along the backs with great support from Jay, Aaron and Max. Heathfield continued to advance towards the Lewes try line after the forwards secured the ball with some good counter rucking from Tom C . Aaron joined the backline from full back to drew his man and made a try making pass to Will S, who scored out wide on the right. From a difficult angle and cross wind the conversion veered wide. (5-0)

At the restart Heathfield went mute so the rejected bouncing ball, which could have gone anywhere was eventually brought under control by some good work from the forwards. Lewes came away with the ball and peeled off the ruck, something they did successfully for most of the game, and fortunately Harrison was on hand to stop the attack. Lewes then gave away a penalty but the resulting kick did not find touch and the Lewes full back, who had a good game, set up good counter attack. Tackles by Ollie and Charlie temporarily stopped the attack which was finally halted when Harrison put in a crunching tackle on a Lewes flanker, although this led to Harrison being off the field for 10 minutes with an injury to his knee.

With Lewes on the up the now legendary try line defence was once again called upon and a great piece of work by Tom de B to hold up a certain try looked to have dampened the Lewes attack. Despite the defence the size of the Lewes forwards proved too much and they scored their first try which was also converted. (5-7).

Using the following wind Jake’s restart kick was deep and this time the Heathfield players were fired up from the kick off and this pressure led to a scrum is a good position in the Lewes 22 yard area. With the front combining well they provided a solid platform for Tom de B to picked up from No.8 to drive over for another try, (Brian tells me this was a well worked forwards move which the backs can take no credit for, fair enough it was a good try!) The conversion took it to 12-7.

Lewes were through quickly on the restart and they ended up deep in the Heathfield half, but once again some ill-discipline let Heathfield off the hook and temporarily lifted the pressure. Harrison gathered the ball from the line out and went on a run but was bundled into touch by two Lewes forwards. Heathfield managed to contain a prolonged period of attacking play from Lewes and given the amount of time Lewes were in the Heathfield 22 it seemed only a matter of time before their second try. But sustained tackling work from the pack meant that Lewes could not breakthrough. The Lewes fly half resorted to a kick to try to get beyond our backline. This was gathered up by Harrison, who was well supported by Jay and Harry. The ball finally found Aaron on the wing who scored wide on the left. Another great kick from Jake took the score to 19-7.

The Lewes restart put the ball deep in the Heathfield half and our boys seemed to pile the pressure on themselves unnecessarily with some wild misplaced passes. With too many players being sucked into defence and out of position Lewes found a large gap and scored. (19-12). One good thing about Heathfield is that when a try is scored against them they want to get right back at the opposition. Pressure from the kick off by Harrison and George M nearly saw an immediate try but Lewes did well to stop them short of the line and with that the half time whistle blew.

Lewes came out for the second half with more purpose throwing several of their large forwards down the middle. Another strong run from one of the Lewes back row towards the corner was stopped and bundled into touch by Tom C and Dara. However, the resulting line out was lost and Lewes ran through unopposed as the tackling was below par. (19-17).

The Heathfield backs, who had been supporting each other well all game, then started to use some of the set piece moves. One such move led to the next Heathfield try, a perfectly timed switch pass from Jay to Will S coming through on the angle moved the score to 24-17. Now kicking against the wind the conversion dropped just short.

As with last season’s fixture the game could still go either way and at 24 – 17 could we be heading for another high scoring draw? With no one committing to catching the Lewes kick off some disarray was only tidied up by Will B, Henry and Charlie which prevented Lewes from gaining possession in the Heathfield 22. Aaron put in a good kick and chase which gave Lewes a line out back in their own half. With some continued individual efforts another catch from Aaron, a jinking run from Max and support work from Storkey and Harry we kept moving forward. The continued niggling work from the Heathfield pack seemed to rile the Lewes forwards and their discipline was beginning to wear a bit thin with Referee Tom, who had to calm a couple of situations.

From one of the penalties awarded to Heathfield the boys made a spectacular hash of it to give possession back to Lewes. Unless there is an opportunity to take the quick penalty (from the right mark!) then all penalty decisions must be made by Harry, as captain and no one else. On a few occasions during the match Heathfield players were caught in the middle of the field due to indecision. After a series of two or three penalties the ball was squandered, turned over and Lewes were able to attack and score, the conversion attempt was made and this took us to the dreaded 24-24 score line. Surely not another high scoring draw!

Heathfield seemed determined not to leave it as a draw and the chase from the restart immediately put Lewes under pressure and they knocked the ball on. The next try came from a great passage of play. From a scrum Storkey passed to Jake to Jay and then some really effective pass and support interplay between Harrison and Jay took Harrison under the posts. 29-24. Jake prepared to take the conversion but was left wanting a kicking tee, he did not have time to wait and unfortunately was forced to drop kick, which he missed. An important point for the subs –you only need to remember three things - water carrying, support the team and be responsible for the kicking tee. It is no good, literally sitting on the fence, blaming each other for not having the tee in Jakes hand. With five minutes still to play, the game was still very close hopefully this lack of attention from the subs would not affect the result!

Lewes began to mount some better and more disciplined attacks through the centre of the field, and in the closing couple of minutes a Lewes forward broke clear and scored 29-29! Fortunately for the cowering subs the Lewes conversion did not make the distance!

With only a minute or so left Storkey made a characteristic break with support from the pack to take the ball into Lewes territory. However, one of Lewes’ stand out players from the past few seasons has been their flanker (the one with the hair!). He made a break on the blindside into the Heathfield half and was only stopped by a great covering tackle combination by Aaron and Harrison. The ref then signalled last play and Jake could have kicked the ball dead for another draw. (Did Jake hear the ref call last play or was he totally brave to play on? - we will never know!) All we do know is that it was a fantastic decision because he opted to use the ball one last time down the backs, through a few forwards standing in the line to a great pick up by Will S who ran the ball in to seal the win 34-29.

The boys can be very pleased with the performance, there were some good individual efforts and once again the whole squad proved that they play well as a unit right to the final whistle.