Heathfield Ladies were just denied a win in the dying minutes of this well-contested Championship 2 game by a resilient Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) team.
This is not the first time this season that they have just given best to a London team in an away game. Given the highly contested nature of this league this should be regarded as two points won (try bonus and losing bonus) rather than missing out on the win. The outcome leaves both sides on 19 league points.
Conditions were remarkably good for early December with a dry firm surface. Heathfield had first use of the slight slope while H&F had the benefit of a breeze.
Early exchanges were inconclusive but it was clear that H&F had a strong scrum which started to have a clear edge. Heathfield will be pleased (and relieved) that they started the game much more positively than their last visit to London three weeks ago. Neither side was able to penetrate the opposition defence at this stage.
Approaching the end of the first quarter an extended period of play in midfield ended with Heathfield possession and good hands moved the ball left which resulted in a 2-on-1 allowing Chip Chippett to put Phoebe Morgan in for the opening score.
Shortly afterwards Heathfield again built pressure into the home 22 with carries by skipper Carol Saunders and Laura McGee who both had strong impactful games. Finally Georgia Reed-Davies worked her way over in a pile of bodies.
By now the penalty count was 5-0 against the home side so a yellow card for their scrum half was not out of turn.
In spite of this H&F now used solid scrum possession and simple hands resulted in a good try in the left hand corner.
Towards the end of the half Heathfield were playing some decent rugby with good handling and useful runs by Reed-Davies and Sophia Skinner. This ended with Clare Baker charging over from short range - she was afterwards picked out as Forward of the Day.
The half time score of 5-15 was a fair reflection of the game thus far. The breeze now seemed to die away which will not have helped the visitors.
Nonetheless Heathfield started brightly and a strong carry by Caitlin Flower was carried on by Christi-Rose Pretorius who, I can confirm, did ground the ball in a confused heap of bodies - but the referee was unsighted and could not award the try.
However a few minutes later Dave left no room for doubt with another charge into the same corner for the bonus point try. As with her other attempts Megan Plane's difficult conversion kick was well struck but just wide and this was to become decisive at the end.
Heathfield Head Coach Dan Suggitt now made a raft of changes, some earlier than he would have preferred as a result of indications from the referee about the front row.
H&F clearly had the better of the rest of the game as they had majority possession which tested the visitors’ defensive organisation. They used their big ball carriers well and appeared to attack more directly rather than going wide. Two H&F tries followed with the second at the end of the third quarter which was accompanied by a yellow for Dave. This was not surprising as the penalty count against Heathfield had been rising and a warning had just been issued.
The last quarter was a tough battle as H&F had an edge but struggled to break through the visitors’ dogged defence. Finally with less than five minutes remaining a couple of penalties allowed H&F to charge over under the posts to level the score - and the conversion secured the win.
The team now have a break until 11 Jan when the unbeaten league leaders Beckenham visit Cross In Hand.
Thereafter quirks of the fixture list mean that most of the remaining games will be at home. Heathfield will be looking forward to welcoming several London sides including H&F who have just beaten them earlier in the season onto home Sussex turf.