Heathfield Colts 17 East Grinstead Colts 12
Heathfield Colts eventually overcame East Grinstead in an entertaining contest in almost ideal conditions in front of a decent crowd. It can be argued that the home side should have sealed the win more convincingly but this would undervalue the challenge presented by the visitors. The home side were wearing their new strip reflecting the generous sponsorship of Wood & Pilcher.
Heathfield had been disrupted overnight by the serious work injury to their fly half Finley Smith so Tom Samuel moved from inside entre and had a very decent day in the position. The first few minutes were characterised by some over enthusiastic play and inevitable mistakes by both sides. However a Harry Slinn-Hawkins break followed by a Samuel quick tap led to a kickable penalty and Harry Westgate duly opened the scoring (3-0).
East Grinstead immediately charged back with a period of pressure and it took a fine piece of jackaling by Oliver Wigman near the home try line to repel them. It was becoming apparent that the visiting hooker and number 8 were important ball carriers for their side.
Both sides were handicapped throughout by the number of penalty kicks which failed to find touch in another sign of youthful exuberance but this certainly kept the game moving with counter chances.
Just before the end of the first quarter Jack Pincus in midfield intercepted and had adequate pace to canter home under the posts. Westgate duly converted (10-0).
Neither side was dominating the breakdown but Casper Watson, Bryn Watkins, Ronan Osborne and Will Chambers were all noted with good work in this area.
In spite of a forecast giving a 6% chance of rain, drizzle now made handling difficult although this gradually died away. Some of the play was unstructured in this period although Wigman was noted with a decent carry. With about five minutes remaining in the half Heathfield secured another penalty opportunity but the kick slipped wide.
The half ended with a period of East Grinstead pressure into the left hand corner but a final chance was ruined when their kick to the corner went dead.
Multiple replacements and positional switches occurred around half time with Ethan Greenlees and Henry Millington in particular coming on to make noteworthy contributions.
At half time the game was definitely in the balance with Heathfield in the lead and having had the benefit of the slight slope in the first half. Heathfield were edging the scrummage and the referee had several issues with the visitors’ scrummaging although no decisive advantage had yet been achieved.
After ten minutes of the half Slinn-Hawkins scored a fine individual try as he received good scrum ball in midfield, beat the first tackler, chipped ahead to regather and slide over for what looked like a decisive lead.
However the visitors replied almost immediately with some good offloading down the left hand touchline although the conversion failed. There was a distinct feeling of game on (17-5). Play became somewhat messy at this point with a greasy ball and over-optimistic handling inevitably resulting in errors.
Zak Dunn may have thought he had collected the decisive score when he chipped ahead and appeared to have followed up successfully under the home balcony but the referee adjudged that he had knocked on just short. East Grinstead immediately came back with some excellent handling in broken play and their hooker added to the strong impression he had made thus far with a powerful and skilful run from some way out to score under the posts (followed by minor handbags). With fifteen minutes remaining a score line of 17-12 meant that all outcomes were possible.
The last fifteen minutes of the game were mostly in the visitors 22 as the home side pressed for the clinching score. The home scrum was now ascendant and the visitors’ attacks had become predictable. At about this time one of the Heathfield coaches commented to me that the problem with the team was too much ego and not enough team.
Then Slinn-Hawkins produced another piece of skill to open up the visiting defence but unfortunately his exuberance in the dead ball area went too far (in more than one way) so no try was scored.
However the home side saw out the remaining minutes without further alarm.
The Heathfield coaches considered Ronan Osborne Man of the Match with Casper Watson a close second. If this undoubtedly talented team is going to progress further in this competition there will need to be less ego and more team.
Team 1. Oliver Wigman 2. Monty Simmonds 3. George Walter 4. Roman Osborne 5 Callum O’Reilly 6 Casper Watson 7 Zak Dunn 8. Will Chambers 9 Harry Westgate 10 Tom Samuel 11. Tom Sayers 12 Harry Slinn-Hawkins 13 Jack Pincus 14 Bryn Watkins 15 Xander Samuel
Replacements 16. Ethan Greenlees 17. Will Wallis 18 Ellis Rainbow 19 Killian Kennedy 20 Elliott Wilson 21 Henry Millington