Guildford Gazelles 43 Heathfield 5
The unbeaten league leaders Guildford Gazelles duly collected a bonus point win over Heathfield. The visitors are suffering from an accumulating injury list as well as absences with people away travelling.
Heathfield had first use of the slight slope although this had little significance on the day. Conditions were remarkably good for January with little wind and a decent well-grassed surface.
Heathfield probably had the better of the opening exchanges with possession retained through multiple phases. However most of this was in midfield without achieving any serious penetration.
In due course Guildford worked their way back into the visitors’ half and a tap penalty was quickly taken by their fly half who dodged her way through for a fine individual score, which she duly converted.
Heathfield continued to have an adequate share of possession but the home side defence was proving effective. At this stage the penalty count was rising against the home side (8-4).
With 15 minutes left in the half Guildford sensibly kept playing with advantage and good hands produced a try in the left hand corner.
The home side continued to exert pressure and a lineout steal by skipper Carol Saunders only delayed further damage. The penalty count now started to turn against the visitors to the extent that the half time count ended slightly against Heathfield.
This gave Guildford consistent position and possession in the right hand corner and eventually they crashed over for a half time score of 19-0.
Bril Mole had to retire hurt and Lib Lawrence took over at scrum half where she did well in the role in addition to a couple of individual breaks.
Heathfield needed a good start to the second half if they were to remain competitive but in the event a solid home scrum gave good ball to the skilful home fly half who stepped past the initial tackles and trotted over under the posts for another fine individual, and bonus point, try.
The penalty count now finally caught up with Guildford as a second row was binned, probably for a high tackle. Heathfield now had an extended period of possession in the home half but the home defence still proved adequate.
Approaching the last quarter Guildford were again handicapped by a yellow for their inside centre, again probably for a high tackle, although this may have been a team yellow with the penalty count again much against them.
Finally Heathfield reaped the reward for their efforts as good scrum ball was carried on by Caitlin Flower to Sophia Skinner and then Phoebe Morgan arrived to dive over for the try.
That was the end of the good news as Guildford ran in three tries in the last few minutes, Some of the visitors’ tackling was best described as sub-optimal at this point but it also reflected the difference in depth of the two teams. The Heathfield bench was mostly composed of relatively new players with little match experience while the Guildford replacements were often at least as effective as the people they replaced.
In spite of the score line, the Heathfield coaches could see much to applaud in their team’s performance with various aspects that had been worked on in training showing signs of bearing fruit in the game.
Precision in tackling had been one of the hallmarks of the playing career of Emily Sowell whose rugby carreer had started at Heathfield before moving to Guildford. Thus it was very pleasant to see Emily on the touchline today greeting old friends on both sides. Rugby’s loss, the music industry’s gain.
There was general praise afterwards for props Abi Bandtock and Steph Chipps who both had a solid day in the tight and who both carried for many hard yards. Flower was also praised for her versatility in taking over at fly half today.
After a much needed week off Heathfield next entertain Canterbury against whom they have had varied results earlier in the season. (28 Jan 2.00)