U15’s Hastings friendly

A brief report for this friendly against Hastings. We had around 25 available boys for this game and therefore it is always useful to play friendlies to be able to rotate players. Hastings came with a squad of twelve as they have been struggling for numbers and at the beginning of the season the club had made the decision to withdraw from the Sussex 2 league. It is good to see the club continue to field a side for as many friendly fixtures as they can which is great for the those boys who still want to play competitive rugby.

It is a shame that Hastings cannot guarantee a full team every week because they have some good runners and effective forwards which showed from their first half performance. They competed well in the first half which was demonstrated by the half time score of 21-10. However the second half ran away from Hastings as the inevitable squad size meant that they tired and let through some easier tries Thanks to the Heathfield boys who played with Hastings and who all gave 100% despite playing against their own teammates. In particular, George M seemed to enjoy himself scoring two tries for Hastings.

In a game where we encourage the boys not to question the decision of the referee I, quite rightly, avoid mentioning referees in reports. However, in this extremely rare circumstance I can say with reasonable confidence that ref Tom does actually need to pop into Specsavers! Hastings was driving for the try line and after several phases the ball went to ground and the try was awarded. Tom had failed to notice what most players and spectators including the ones in the bar had seen that the ball was clearly sitting on the five yard line! Fortunately Tom realised his faux par immediately and no altercation with the authorities was required!

The result showed that the Heathfield squad has strength in depth, with some great running and support work. Players also need to remember whilst playing rugby, whatever the result act as good hosts and be gracious in victory or defeat. All credit to the both teams and I hope the experience proved valuable for both sides.