Havant Ladies 58 Heathfield 0
Heathfield Ladies were well-beaten in this NC1 match by an efficient Havant team who are the league leaders.
Havant have a fine setup with a flat 3G pitch, floodlights and sizable spectator stand on their large (by rural standards) clubhouse. The visiting players may well have been slightly awed initially by the environment but they will have learned from the experience and will be less daunted in future.
The first home try came after twelve minutes and tries came fairly steadily thereafter. The game was not a mismatch and the referee commented at half time that the score line at that point (32-0) did not reflect how competitive it was.
The set piece was generally even but Havant benefitted from the higher error count by the visitors, running back spilt ball. Heathfield were managing some isolated good moments such as a solid run by Sophia Skinner and one by Hannah Haffenden into the right hand corner but they never managed to put repeated phases together. Carla Monson and skipper Becky Taylor were hard-working and effective in defence. Notably the scrummage was even all day so credit to the front five in particular.
Heathfield were also handicapped by having two forwards in the backs and just two replacements so Alex Young and Keeleigh Harman returned to play on when they would preferably have retired honourably. Indeed later in the game Heathfield were reduced to 14 players and the scrum to six aside. Havant had six replacements.
The second half started brightly for Heathfield with some good carries by Taylor, Ella Watson, Saskia Sullivan and Sophie Saunders but gradually Havant reasserted themselves and more tries followed.
One bright moment for the visitors came when quick second phase ball was moved wide and Amber Lovick made a great run for the left hand corner but was just denied by a last ditch tackle.
Most of the Havant tries came from good support running and accurate passing. The Heathfield coaches were disappointed at some of their team’s performance which involved poor body positions and tackling too high. However Heathfield are limited by their training facilities at present and there can be little doubt that they would be a better side, especially in the backs, if they were able to train on a good surface. Outcomes such as today add urgency to finding a resolution to that issue.
Heathfield are playing in a league which reflects the evolving womens’ game in that there is a range of abilities across the eight teams, Thus Heathfield are very competitive against several teams but struggle against the stronger sides.
It was a subdued bus back into Sussex although they at least had the satisfaction of winning the post match beer race through the usual contributor (discretion prevents identification) who would outperform most young men in this respect.
Next Sunday Heathfield entertain Southampton (1 Dec 2.00).

Team
1. Georgia Reed Davies
2. Poppy Eacott
3. Saskia Sullivan
4. Alex Young
5. Amber Lovick
6. Sophia Saunders
7. Ella Watson
8. Rebecca Taylor
9. Carla Monson
10. Lesley Coulter
11. Katie Statham
12. Sophia Skinner
13. Keeleigh Harman
14. Hannah Haffenden
15. Katie Baurer

16. Moanna Muller
17. Emma Marler