Heathfield & Crowborough RFC Colts vs Uckfield RFC Colts

Result: 24-15 (win for Heathfield)
Those on the celtic fringes of these isles have words, built from centuries of sodden experience, for days of such dismal and damp conditions: ‘dreich’ for those north of Hadrian’s Wall, or simply ‘fliuch’ to those on the more westerly Atlantic seaboard. It was indeed another successive Sunday where rapid free-flowing rugby seemed unlikely, and where a muddy forward-dominated slugfest would instead dominate proceedings. The actual game, however, proved to be rather more exciting and competitive than many doom-mongers would have predicted.
Crowborough kicked off, playing through the afternoon murk towards the clubhouse end. Impressive opening phase play from the Heathfield forwards, with James Stevens enjoying some storming runs, ended with ‘Borough infringing at a ruck; Tom Reilly took a brave angle with the ensuing kick to the corner with the ball splatting down on the line just five metres out. A perfect throw from Heathfield hooker George Hayter was met with a well-lifted take from Ellis Wilson, and Olly Carr strode over almost unopposed from the maul that followed. The conversion drifted just wide, but it had been a strong opening from the home side.
Crow were not to be cowed though, and responded shortly afterwards with a beautifully-worked midfield move allowing their centre to power through an untended gap, their fly-half to subsequently slide a grubber kick through to the clubhouse corner, and the right-wing to slither in for the touch-down. Five apiece after ten minutes, and emphatically ‘game on’. The same number of minutes later, a piece of sharp thinking and individual trickery saw ‘Borough’s scrum-half take a quick tap penalty and streak home from half-way whilst Heathfield looked on rather dozily, too late to respond.
Back came Heathfield again though. Lacking a little from the earlier composure, one chance was bungled with a knock-on at a five metre line-out. Nevertheless, Brad Scott and Ellis Wilson were continuing to thunder into the opposition with convincing carries, and the side-stepping Luca Rosenberg, clattering blasts of Archie Adam, and dynamic runs of Stevens all took Heathfield closer to the Crows’ line. Finn Scott-Taggart wrestled his way over from the following ruck, and Tom Reilly knocked over a sweetly-struck conversion from the right with the last play of the first half: 12-10.
That score gave Heathfield real momentum into the second half, and for much of that second period they were the dominant side. If gloom had certainly not settled over the supporters who were enjoying a fine contest, it did now begin to descend over the pitch, and those on the south side of the advertising hoardings could be noticed looking a little longingly at the twinkling lights of the clubhouse where warmth and something refreshing might be waiting. Meanwhile, both sets of forwards were competing in hearty fashion: at times, clouds of steam could be seen rising from scrums as if the collective mass was a herd of sheltering cattle, and the deep stag-like exhortations for greater effort from the visiting pack added to a pastoral if not peaceful scene. Heathfield had the better chances amongst all of this: Carr almost put Harry Isbitt away in the left corner, Sam Walley continued to win a series of ball at well-refereed rucks, and Hayter won three hooks against the head at scrum-time. After a period of pressure, a good move and further bullocking runs from Scott and Oli Tooke allowed Sam Tiley the chance to smash over. Five minutes later, Cameron Reader took a decisive straightening line in Crows’ 22 but was tackled two metres short; James Stevens’s little dummy from the following ruck bought him enough time to plunge over from short range. Another impressive conversion from Tom Reilly widened the gap between the two sides to a testing 14 points with 17 minutes left.
The visitors were not yet done though: a crunching tackle from Hamish McAlister brought one thrust to a halt, Tiley found himself yellow-carded for a momentary loss of cool, and one of the big Crow forwards shrugged some of the few half-hearted tackles of the whole match to gallop over in the left corner in the dying moments of the match. It was not enough though and once time was up, Scott-Taggart hoofed the ball over the touchline with some relief to give the home team a well-deserved and hard-fought victory.

Team: 1. Ollie Tooke; 2. George Hayter; 3 Brad Scott; 4. Sam Tiley; 5. Ellis Wilson; 6. Sam Walley; 7. James Stevens (c); 8. Olly Carr; 9. Finn Scott-Taggart; 10. Tom Reilly; 11. Matt Anthony; 12. Luca Rosenberg; 13. Archie Adam; 14. Cameron Reader; 15. Angus Paterson
Replacements: 16. Harry Isbitt for Sam Walley (12); 17. Hamish McAlister for Angus Patterson (35); 18. Jon Beaton for Archie Adams(41); 19. Kieran Dudgeon for Harry Isbitt (63)

Scores:
6 mins: Heathfield – unconverted try (Olly Carr): 5-0
10 mins: Crowborough – unconverted try: 5-5
15 mins: Crowborough – unconverted try: 5-10
35 mins: Heathfield – try (Finn Scott-Taggart) and conversion (Tom Reilly): 12-10
Half-time score: 12-10
48 mins: Heathfield – unconverted try (Sam Tiley): 17-10
53 mins: Heathfield – try (James Stevens) and conversion (Tom Reilly): 24-10
67 mins: Crowborough – unconverted try: 24-15
Full-time score: 24-15