Tough encounter - great tackling practice!

We have a home and away fixture against Cranbrook each season and it is always a close contest with each team winning their respective home ties in the previous season. Due to the Sussex county level training which took out a potential eight boys from the squad and a three further injuries we were still fortunate to be able to field a 16 player squad for this fixture. Cranbrook agreed to play a development team ensuring that both teams benefited from the game.

From the off it was clear that the Cranbrook pack were well drilled and were going to give Heathfield problems. Early on they pushed us off the ball on a number of occasions and the large No.8 was intent on doing as much damage from the back of the scrum, as possible.

Despite some early efforts by Mackenzie and George H who continued to tackle hard all game, Cranbrook was steadily building pressure. Edward forced a knock on from one attack but the resulting scrum was won against the head, the No8 went blind and Cranbrook had their first try. (5-0). There was some better pressure from the restart but the Heathfield boys did not have the commitment in securing the ball that Cranbrook were displaying. Theo managed to steal the ball from the back of a ruck and had a mini run. Edward and Tom T were up in close support but the phases soon diminished thanks to the Cranbrook pack. Under a lot of pressure Tyler managed a high clearance kick which nearly found touch but was well picked up by the fast winger to take the score to 10-0. Followed by a third quick try, once again Heathfield showing a little too much disarray in a scrambling defence.

There were glimmers of the skills that all the boys can, at times, show. Jay had the quickness of mind to send the ball over the top of Cranbrook defence from a quickly taken penalty, Connor flattened everything that he could and Ed and Luke kept up with the stalwart defence in the pack. Cranbrook was beginning to find space and creating gaps in Heathfield’s defence. There was some great tackling from Edward, Max and Tom T to stop a couple of try’s, with equally strong pockets of resistance in the pack but Cranbrook supported well to score a couple more tries to leave the half time score at 25-0.

At half time the key discussion was gaining possession of the ball and the need to want this more than the opposition. Cranbrook made quite a few subs at half time to play some of its development players. Mackenzie received the kick-off and drove forward, but once again support was slow and the ball was again turned over. Max tackled a player into touch, George H put in another direct run at the opposition pack from the line-out and eventually Tom T put his boot to a mighty clearance kick. Tyler and Jay were quickly up on the full back but the excellent support got Cranbrook into attack once more.

With such little possession credit had to be given to the Heathfield boys for not giving up. Tom C placed a good penalty kick into touch to set a platform in the opposing half. The phases of play started to come and with quicker ball from the forwards the backs managed to move the ball around. After another ruck the ball was out quickly from Jay, the ball went down the line to Edward on the 22 yard line; he went for the outside and then cut back in to wrong foot the defence and went over the line for Heathfield’s first try. (25-5). Heathfield were definitely in the ascendance and dominated the first fifteen minutes of the second half. Cranbrook then started to change the substitutes around again and the game swung back in their favour.

The main highlights for the last ten minutes were Heathfield’s determination not to give up, with some excellent cover tackles from most players. In the final Heathfield possession of the game Ollie stepped forward as the kicker and launched a really well placed kick into the corner. However the Heathfield score moved no further and the match ended at 51-5.

Once again with so many players out and seeing so little of the ball all game the offensive game suffered. However defensively the boys can be proud of an all-round team effort which no doubt led to a few battered souls come Monday morning! A re-match has already been confirmed for 22 March, a day when both clubs can field full squads which should make for an interesting game.