Heathfield Colts scrape through

Heathfield Colts managed to overcome a fired-up Tonbridge Juddians (TJ) after spluttering for most of the match to win by a hotly disputed 17 - 15.

Heathfield kicked off into a good breeze but were immediately put under pressure by TJ who drove Heathfield back into their half. It was to be the way of things for much of the first half!

After 10 mins of play, and after Heathfields only real chance of points when Harry Reilly missed a penalty, TJ started the scoreboard rolling with a well taken penalty for Heathfield in at the side of a ruck.

Heathfield were very disjointed and looked like a side that had not played or trained much for most of the season! There appeared to be little enthusiasm, little technique and little unity for much of the half.

TJ's took advantage of this again a few minutes later with another well taken penalty and then on 27 mins. with the first try of the match when one TJ player broke yet another weak Heathfield tackle and outpaced the limited covering defence!

Heathfield down 0 - 13. It's been a long time since that has happened!!!

Heathfield did show signs of better unity and determination after this. The troubling aspect was that Heathfield were completely dominant in the scrum, won lots of good possession at a nicely functioning lineout and were mauling extremely well. It was just the commitment to the tackle and breakdown that was very disappointing!

Finally Heathfield managed to string a series of phases together, won a lineout 10m out and drove TJ back for Rory Cramp to score a try right on half-time.

HT: Heathfield down 5 - 13.

With the breeze behind them and a semblance of unity and cohesion, Heathfield applied their more usual pressure from the start but it wasn't until the 15th minute that they managed to score again. Indeed it was from another lineout win that Heathfield ran a set move with Gareth Lloyd breaking tackles to score close to the posts. This time Reilly converted to take the score to 12 - 13.

At this point it looked like Heathfield were finally shaking off the lack of training and play to start working as a team again. However, stout defending from TJ and some silly mistakes and a few dropped balls from Heathfield meant that Heathfield never really had multiple phases of play, even though they spent most of the half om the TJ side of the pitch!

Finally though, from a series of rucks, Reilly slotted a dropped goal from 30m out. However the success of the kick was hotly disputed by a TJ coach behind the posts. Indeed, this was to be the main theme and talking point from this point onwards. For my part and from where I was standing it looked easily in (the ball went way above the top of the posts and this is where much of the debate hinges!) however mixed opinions were heard from both sets of players as well.

The match ended a few minutes later with Heathfield ekeing out a 15 - 13 win.

Special mention must be made of the U16 players who joined in this match: Henry Paul (prop), Miles Kelly (2nd row), Liam Parsons (back row) and Chester Duff (centre). All played and handled themselves very well and even though it was a scratchy match by Colts standards, hopefully they will have enjoyed the experience and the game-time.

With regard to the disputed dropped goal... we all adjurned to the bar and watched the video - replayed a number of times with freeze frame - and unfortunately even that was inconclusive!!! Thankfully this was a friendly with little more than practice and pride being played for, so we await a return match at TJ sometime later in the season!

FT: Heathfield win 15 - 13.

Team: Lewis Golding, Alex Borg, Max Ellery, Henry Ross, Jack Smith, Rob Flett, Liam Parsons, Rory Cramp, Kieran Burdett, Harry Reilly, Tim Sills, Fergus Diplock, Chester Duff, Harry Sperring, Gareth Lloyd, Adam Davies, Henry Paul, Miles Kelly, Travis Parsons.