Charlton Park comfortable winners

Heathfield 20 Charlton Park 54
Heathfield were well beaten in the end by an efficient Charlton Park who contained Heathfield’s early efforts and were completely in control by the end. For the second week in a row Heathfield were unable to exploit first use of a slight slope and breeze enough to withstand the second half counter.
On paper this looked to be the strongest Heathfield side this season as people returned from injuries, holidays, illness and other issues but it still involved six changes of personnel from the previous week – and meant that in the seven games this far Heathfield have had 43 different names on the team sheet. This constant changing in personnel came home to roost in the last half hour today as the pressure came on and the team was unable to respond.
In excellent conditions with sunny periods and a steady breeze down the slope Charlton Park soon demonstrated an admirable approach to the game as they always looked to keep the ball alive, tapping penalties and using their big skilful forwards to drive into the home defence. An early tap penalty was chipped over the defence by their scrum half Alan Knuckey, regathered and then again chipped on to be collected and moved wide for the left wing to dive into the left corner (0-5).
Heathfield gradually came into the game and from a lineout good ball was moved wide and decent support finally saw Lewis Headland work his way over in the bottom right hand corner (5-5).
Although Heathfield had several big men to operate in the lineout, they were being challenged by Park and this phase proved difficult for both sides with the breeze causing frequent not straight and overthrows. The scrummage was messy all day with the visiting tight head Terry Read often causing problems and Park generally had the better of that phase. Felix Godwin had his first start at hooker, after coming off the bench last week, and will have learnt a good deal although he may not realise it just yet.
A Park penalty was then cancelled out by a Harry Reilly drop goal, taken while playing advantage from a penalty call (8-8). The end of the first quarter saw Heathfield take the lead as good scrum ball was moved into the centre and Fabian Rimmer ran a lovely line to bosh through the defence and claim a fine try, converted by Reilly (15-8). Park replied almost immediately as turnover ball was moved wide with a good finish in the right hand corner. Five minutes later another turnover was run back for the dangerous Reion Raybe to collect his first try of the day (15-20).
At half time the game was in the balance and had thus far been an entertaining and well-contested match. Initially this continued in the second half as an early Park penalty (15-23) was then answered by an excellent home try. Big forwards drove into midfield and then quick ball was moved right with Will Tyler making good yards before finding Henry Armstrong who dived into the corner under the balcony (20-23).
That was the end of the good news for the home side. Park were starting to secure majority possession and most of the rest of the game was in the home half. An attack into the left hand corner was just contained but Tyler was binned for not rolling away at a breakdown two yards out. Soon afterwards the home scrummage creaked and Park collected a penalty try (20-30). Then Haidar Maliki, making a welcome reappearance after injury, was binned for contact near the shoulders when clearing out a ruck. These successive hammer blows decided the game and Heathfield finished the game poorly from this point.
With two men short Heathfield were scrambling to contain the situation when a sliced clearance kick missed touch and the ball was soon moved to Raybe who had too much pace for the cover (25-30). Raybe was then just denied another try by a great cover tackle by Ethan Walker. Henry Ross was one of the few bright points on the day for the home side with good lineout work and some important tackles back.
However in the last few minutes Park were completely in control and ran in three more tries with Raybe finishing the scoring with his third on the day.
Charlton Park are a more experienced and well-drilled team than Heathfield: they will be challenging for promotion by the time Heathfield visit them next February.
After the game the home changing room door remained shut for a long time. So far this season some very scratch Heathfield sides have performed decently and with considerable spirit but today a supposedly preferred selection came up a long way short in the last quarter. The ability is definitely there but teams are built on playing and training together and Heathfield have not had that luxury so far this season.
Hopefully lessons learnt, hard words said and accepted so we move on to welcome Horsham next Saturday (4 November 2.30).
NOTE: the game next week is at home. On the original fixture list this was to be at Horsham but they have a big fireworks party that evening so it was agreed that the fixtures would be reversed. We will be going there on 3 March 2018.