Old Alleynians 68 Heathfield 10
Before the details of today’s match sadly Heathfield have to note the passing of two big people in all senses in John Cashmore and Colin Pestel. Both were heavily involved in the early days of the club, enjoying the delights of the barn at Blackboys. Both would have relished the contest today as a little Sussex club took on a big well-resourced London operation. They will be fondly remembered and much missed.
Old Alleynians are the deserved leaders of the RFU Counties 1 Kent league. With at least three rounds remaining they are still just short of being assured of winning the league but nobody doubts that will happen. They look a good all round team with skill and pace across the park who are currently playing with the confidence of a routinely winning team.
For the second week in a row the Heathfield side included more young players than ideal – 7 of the 18 man squad were 21 or younger. This was not helped when Jay Massey-Taylor had to withdraw during the warmup with health issues so the squad was down to 17 before kick off.
Conditions were good with Heathfield having first use of the slight slope and variable breeze on a decent dry surface. Alleynians initially pressed into the visitors’ 22 and collected an easy penalty to open the scoring. However Heathfield replied almost immediately as good lineout ball was worked wide and Toby Simpson entered the line at the right moment before chipping ahead and winning the foot-race to touch down in the left hand corner.
At this stage the contest looked to be in the balance although there some ominous signs in the scrummage and out wide where the home side very threatening. Heathfield were competing fiercely at the breakdown with Ollie Tooke and Dan Bird being especially noted with their efforts. At the end of the first quarter Will Chambers had to retire with a nasty eye injury and his absence made a difficult position even harder.
Soon afterwards the visitors defence was decisively breached and Alleynians collected four tries in just over ten minutes mainly through excellent handling and support play, often playing from deep with turn over ball.
Just at the end of the half Heathfield had a sniff of another score in the right hand corner with Tom Cornwall and Dan Canneau being particularly noted but eventually Alleynians broke out and ended the half with another try at the other end.
With the conditions in their favour in the second half Alleynians will have been justifiably confident of the outcome and indeed almost immediately they scored their sixth try in the left hand corner through the now familiar good handling across the park. Heathfield were now further handicapped by a yellow card for Sam Crichton for a late tackle.
Tries continued to come steadily and entering the last quarter the score of 56-5 was a harsh but fair reflection of the game thus far.
Nonethless Heathfield continued to try to be positive when possible and the ball was moved to Cole Mackenzie on the left wing who escaped the initial defence but was just brought down by a despairing tap tackle when he would have had an otherwise clear run to the line.
Another home try soon followed but another Heathfield move down the left flank initiated by Ben Irwin, carried on by Simpson and then Mackenzie was only just contained in the left hand corner. The penalty count had been massively against the home side throughout the game (20-7) so it was no surprise when this finally attracted a yellow card. However some justice was also done as good lineout ball was worked wide right and Simpson collected his second try on the day in the corner.
Inevitably Alleynians had the last word with their eleventh try on the day with more good support play into the left hand corner.
One of Heathfield’s senior players later commented that you should not be complimenting people on the losing side in an 11-2 try battering. While this has some validity it would also be wrong not to credit many decent performances in difficult circumstances. In particular the Colts involved today all acquitted themselves well. As well as Mackenzie noted above Monty Simmonds gave a typically fully committed performance at flanker in spite the physical disadvantage against much larger players, Harry Westgate put in a useful shift at scrum half while William Wallis did some sturdy work at close quarters against bigger and older opponents.
Otherwise Cornwall led by example while Crichton was also noted with multiple carries in heavy traffic. Lucas Cuming collected plenty of bumps in a committed defensive effort but Dylan Eames was probably the best performer for Heathfield on the day with strong work at close quarters.
It also has to be noted that the home support was at least matched in numbers by travelling supporters from Heathfield.
For Alleynians their right wing Rory Holford collected four tries on the day with good pace but this was based on sound foundations across the team and in particular flanker Harry Philpott (outrageous sidestep!) and especially their inside centre Rob Outram.
Next Saturday Heathfield entertain Thanet Wanderers in the rearranged match following the unfortunate accident to the referee in the fixture in September (25 Feb 2.30).