H&W RFC vs Haywards Heath RFC Championship League Match

Heathfield & Waldron RFC Colts v Haywards Heath Colts – 10th November 2019

Result: 18-3 (win for Haywards Heath)

The seasoned rugby observer did not need much prompting to determine how this match might play out: a heavy pitch drenched by weeks of rain, two committed sides, and a healthy dose of local rivalry would lead to a close, competitive and evenly-fought affair which remained right in the balance until the last five minutes of play. The afternoon itself was bright though, as was the opening spell of play – Heathfield used their forwards initially driving tight to the rucks, with Ellis Wilson showing well with several convincing carries, and then looked to use their nimble-footed backs to probe for gaps. These early advances were met with solid Haywards Heath defence, a feature of both teams’ play all afternoon. As the home side hurried to clear their lines after absorbing this initial pressure, James Stevens raced to charge down the kick, and the ensuing ruck saw the visitors awarded a penalty which Tom Reilly duly knocked over with a solid strike. 0-3 after six minutes.
The rest of the half followed a tight pattern with much of the play being conducted between the two sides’ 22s. Haywards Heath certainly had the nudge with a dominant scrum, whilst Heathfield worked well in the maul with their back row also scrapping hard on the floor at rucks. When Haywards Heath began to press hard, Archie Adam, Sam Tiley and Sam Walley all responded with crunching tackles; eventually though a penalty award saw the home side level the scores with a well-struck goal. In the closing minutes of the opening half, Brad Scott showed a remarkable turn of space for a tight-head prop in scrambling across to make a vital cover tackle down the muddiest of touch-lines, Jack Flint made the hard yards with several well-judged drives, and Matt Anthony almost broke the deadlock with an intercept which could have been decisive. At the same time, Cam Reader was having an excellent all-round game, tackling above his weight, and offered a twinkle-toed threat with ball in hand. All-in-all, it was pretty attritional stuff though, with a half-time score of 3-3 probably an accurate reflection of the nature and direction of play.
The second half saw no let-up in the determination shown by both sides. However, a string of penalties awarded against the visitors made field position and possession very hard to establish, as the meaty home pack began to make their weight advantage tell. There was also greater endeavour now in their running too, with too many Heathfield forwards beginning to be sucked in to positions close to the ruck with space and opportunity being therefore created out wide. With a little zip and urgency temporarily lost in what had been excellent Heathfield defence, an overlap was created and the home three-quarters eagerly exploited it with good handling to score on the left.
Heathfield came back through with still over a quarter of the game to be played, and pressed hard: a fly-hack through allowed Oli Tooke to drive close in a subsequent phase. It was not to be though, and a fumbled ball and yet another penalty shortly afterwards led to that crucial chance drifting away. The final minutes saw confirmation of what those wise old sages on the touchline had suspected all along: a game in these conditions would eventually be won by the heavier pack if they played their hand carefully, and Haywards Heath did just that. Two late tries may have felt a touch unjust for the visitors, but emphasised how HH were now taking the chances that they had worked hard to set up by sapping the energy of the Heathfield forwards: a clean break from a switch-move after a scrum allowed the home side’s centre to score, and this was followed quite sharply by a well-judged chip over the top which left the Heathfield defence scrambling, unsuccessfully in the end, to get sufficient numbers back to defend a short drive from the ruck that followed. 18-3 was the final score, but there was plenty for both sides to be positive about as the league season develops.

Team: 1. Ollie Tooke; 2. George Hayter; 3. Brad Scott; 4. Jack Flint; 5. Ellis Wilson; 6. Sam Tiley; 7. James Stevens (c); 8.Olly Carr; 9. Archie Adam; 10. Tom Reilly; 11. Jon Beaton; 12. Luca Rosenberg; 13. Cam Reader; 14. Matt Anthony; 15. Finn Scott-Taggart
Replacements: 16. Jack Durnell (35) for Brad Scott; 17. Sam Walley (35) for Jack Flint; 18. Kieran Dudgeon (35) for Matt Anthony; 19. Angus Paterson (35) for Jon Beaton

Scores:
6 mins: Heathfield – penalty goal (Tom Reilly): 0-3
23 mins: Haywards Heath – penalty goal: 3-3
47 mins: Haywards Heath – unconverted try: 8-3
65 mins: Haywards Heath – unconverted try: 13-3
67 mins: Haywards Heath – unconverted try: 18-3
Full-time score: 18-3