Heathfield League win against Hove

Heathfield traveled to Hove for the 2nd installment of their Colts League programme on an overcastand and windy Sunday afternoon. Perhaps the omens were good but Heathfield played Hove in a number of age groups today with wins clocking up all over. Could Heathfields Colts maintain the winning run?

Heathfield started the match with 1 available sub, received the ball and immediatly had a rampant Hove pack on them but managed to hold off the initial surges. Within 5 minutes though, Heathfields forwards were beginning to assert themselves and shoved the Hove pack backwards at the first scrummage. That was a marker laid down that was not bested by Hove all match. Indeed, the front row of Lewis Golding, Alex Borg and Max Ellery dominated thier bigger and much more experienced County U18 props at the scrummage.

Our lineout however, misfired a little with the missing Henry Ross but we still managed to keep competitive for most of the match.

Hove scored first, against the run of play, with a converted penalty when Heathfield infringed at the breakdown. Indeed, the breakdown was Heathfields main achilles heel during the match with more than 15 pieces of Heathfield possession turned over, primarily by Hove's big county prop.

After about 15 minutes of play, Heathfield countered with their own converted penalty from Harry Reilly when some surging runs from Toby Warren caused mayhem in the Hove midfield defence. Warren was to be a thorn in the Hove midfield all match.

That was the last score of the half with possession fairly even but Heathfield dominating the territory. Heathfield sadly lost Jasper Wrenn during the match to a knee injury.

Half Time: Heathfield draw 3 - 3.

The 2nd half saw Heathfield race into the Hove half chasing the kick-off and maintain that position for all but 5 minutes of the half when Hove threatened the Heathfield line. Indeed, but for an exceptional tackle by Jo Hastings, the dangerous Hove 12 would have been through!

As it transpired though, Heathfield had all the territory but lacked cohesion. Very few phases were put together because of excellent Hove foraging and also Heathfield's lack of precision, decision making, holding on to the ball too long and sometimes support. This led to a very exciting match but also to one littered with errors and stoppages.

Finally though, with the referee signalling the last play of the match, Heathfield won their lineout, strung together half a dozen phases with play switching from wing to wing and scored a minute later when Harry Clewly found Borg unmarked on the wing. Borg curbed his instinct to do an Ashton Dive and dotted the ball down for Reilly to convert.

Ultimately, when Heathfield FINALLY played through the phases and passed the ball... they scored! Lesson learned? I really hope so!!!

Final Score: Heathfield Win: 10 - 3.

Team: Golding, Borg, Ellery, Vater, Hindes, Wardle, Wrenn, Flett, Burdett, Reilly, Hastings, Warren, Clewly, Jones, Koops, Vidler.