Colts play 1st Round of National Cup

This was Heathfield Colts first home match of the season and what a season opener! Twickenham RFC at home in the first round of the National Colts Cup on a warm, sunny afternoon with a large crowd cheering them on. Brilliant!!!

Twickenham kicked off into the breeze but Heathfield immediately took control, drove a couple of phases and then released their backs. Jack Koops hit the line at pace, gained good ground before offloading to Alex Borg to score in the corner. Reilly converted excellently from the touchline.

There was a bit of concern that the players would think job done after scoring a well worked try in the first minute and the coaches urged the players to stay focused and start again.

Thankfully they did just that! Again Heathfield took control from the restart and good recycling, support and great game sense to attack the blind side saw Harry Reilly feed Max Ellery with Tim Sills outside. Ellery outpaced the covering defence from halfway to score in the same corner. Reilly again converted a very difficult kick for Heathfield to take a 14 – 0 lead after 7 minutes.

Next up was a double from Harry Sperring. Both tries needed scoring with players to beat and ground to cover but Sperring showed great pace, footwork and determination in both instances. His first was directly from the restart with the ball being recycled immediately to the backs. Fergus Diplock broke the gain line (something he was to to do many times during the match) and fed Sperring who cut through some weak tackling to score from 40m out. Sperring’s second came 5 minutes later when he straightened an arc run to split the defence. Reilly missed with one of the conversions but Heathfield suddenly found themselves 26 – 0 up with 20 minutes played.

Twickenham rallied after this and some sloppy defending in combination with a number of penalties for side entry at the breakdown allowed Twickenham to attack the Heathfield line. Some resolute defending ensued but Twickenham were not to be denied and scored a converted try close to the posts.

With 5 minutes left of the half, Travis Parsons came on for Koops as a blood replacement and with his first touch of the ball scored an excellent try in the corner. Reilly’s conversion unfortunately came off the post but Heathfield had re-asserted themselves and went into half-time 31 - 7 up.

The 2nd half saw many changes and some of the continuity of play was lost initially because of this. Gareth Lloyd, who had another blinder at openside, went to outside centre; Borg went to blindside with a new front row of Adam Davies, Lewis Golding and Ellery. Rory Cramp came in for Rob Flett at 8 and James Higgins came on at 7.

The opening 10 minutes of the half saw quite a good tussle for the ball and territory with Twickenham beginning to show well. This allowed them to break through some very weak Heathfield tackling to score another converted try under the posts.

The signs were ominous but Heathfield tightened up their play, went back to phases and took control again. An excellent solo 2nd try from Parsons saw the points gap maintained and stopped some of the jitters amongst the coaches!

Then followed arguably the best try of the match when Cramp broke from a scrum on half-way. He made excellent ground before offloading to Kieran Burdett who took the ball on further until he was stopped by a great Twickenham cover tackle. However Borg was on hand to pick and go and scored his second try easily under the posts.

A few minutes later and from another scrum on half way, Burdett went blind and stepped between the flanker and wing and scorched away to score yet another close to the posts.

The final try came from Henry Jolliffe who had switched to fullback who rounded off a very good outing for Heathfield.

The Twickenham coaches, players and parents led the après match festivities with various jugs and drinking competitions. Captain Max Ellery won the players glug and Joe the Twickenham coach (a drinking ringer if ever there was one!!!) beat Elten to down the Guiness!

Full Time: Heathfield win 55 - 14.

Tries: Borg(2), Parsons(2), Sperring(2), Burdett, Ellery, Jolliffe

Team: Golding, Borg, Ellery, Ross, Smith, Brown, Lloyd, Flett, Jolliffe, Reilly, Sills, Diplock, Sperring, Burdett, Koops, Davies, Cramp, Higgins, Parsons, Jones.