Welcome win in the wet

Heathfield 31 Thanet Wanderers 19
Those of a certain age will remember Louis Armstrong singing
"Now, I don't care what the weatherman says
When the weatherman says it's raining
You'll never hear me complaining, I'm certain the sun will shine"
Today the weatherman said Heathfield would just have scattered showers but the reality was very different. Eventually the sun did shine and at the end of the day Heathfield weren’t complaining.
Heathfield finally secured their first win of this league season after enduring difficult wet conditions in the first half and a resilient visiting pack who refused to accept defeat.
After significant rain on Thursday night the pitch outside the clubhouse was soft but both captains were happy to play on it. Heavy showers during the warm up had soaked both sides but with little wind and on a reasonably warm day, conditions were at times unpleasant but not arduous.
This report is necessarily short on details since my notes are a soggy mess. The match started in squally rain of varying intensity which made handling something of a lottery. Both sides kicked even more than usual – the more time you have the ball, the more chance of a knock-on or other handling error.
Nonetheless Heathfield started with some clinical rugby as a penalty gave them a good attacking position near the home 22. Secure lineout ball was moved into midfield and Jay Massey-Taylor ran a lovely line to dive over under the posts with barely three minutes on the clock, duly converted by Toby Simpson.
An early, and rare, scrum was turned over by Heathfield although subsequently the visitors probably had the better of that phase without ever completely dominating. Heathfield now suffered a blow when Tom Tingley picked up an ankle injury which forced his retirement, replaced by Tom De Bruin. Tingley has been having a fine season after his return from a long term injury.
Approaching the end of the first quarter an exchange of long kicks was ended in dramatic fashion as Simpson collected the ball near his own 22 and stepped his way through despairing tackles for a fine solo try, naturally converting his own score.
Thanet were far from downhearted by the 14-0 score and a couple of penalties allowed them to reach a good attacking position in the left hand corner. They duly exploited an efficient lineout for a try, albeit unconverted.
The almost continuous rain made notetaking difficult but I don’t think anything significant happened in the rest of the half, apart from one Heathfield attack from deep that should have resulted in a try but the wrong option was chosen when one more pass would have given an easy run in.
At half time the game was much in the balance. While the visitors had an edge in the scrummage, the lineout had been even. Thanet now had the benefit of the slight slope and would have been looking to make use of their larger forwards. Thankfully the rain stopped almost on the stroke of half time – too late for my notes unfortunately.
As at the start of the game, Heathfield started the second half with an early score. Thanet tried to run the restart from their own 22 and when this was turned over good hands moved the ball to Harry Slinnhawkins on the left wing who stepped inside the last tackler for a well-taken try.
Thanet were trying to get their game going with good lineout ball into midfield when Tom Reilly intercepted and had an easy canter under the posts for the bonus point try. That is his second interception in successive games.
At 26-5 the game might have appeared over but to their considerable credit this merely inspired the visitors to greater efforts. They thought they had collected a try off the back of a lineout in the bottom corner but play was called back for a penalty.
Nonetheless they then scored two tries in three minutes from clinically executed lineout catch and drives, both converted so at 26-19 the game took on a very different feel.
However a few minutes later near the end of the third quarter, Heathfield (just) secured good scrum ball on the visitors’ 22 and Tom Cornwall capped his usual dynamic game with a chip ahead on the blindside and recovery of the ball to claim a fine try.
Thanet were far from beaten but generally Heathfield contained their threat with some solid all-team defensive work that kept the visitors out of range of their favoured driving maul. Throughout the game Aiden Plumley had been outstanding with some massive tackles and he was again a key influence at this stage preventing any further scores by the visitors.
By now my notes were disintegrating but there were no further scores. However with ten minutes remaining an injury to a Thanet prop caused scrums to be made uncontested which reduced one of the areas in which they had a slight advantage. They were further handicapped when one of their replacements was rightly binned for a deliberate knock-on.
Thanet finished the game with another surge under the home posts but eventually the ball was knocked on and the final whistle went.
As well as Plumley’s fine performance, afterwards there was particular mention of strong work by Joe Lewis who stepped up to the task in the absence of Dylan Eames. It was also good to see Jem Macvicker back on the pitch with a useful contribution. When everyone is fit, there is serious competition for back row positions. Skipper Dan Bird put in another full shift while Ben Irwin enjoyed disrupting his slightly younger half-back opponents.
Notably several Heathfield players commented afterwards very positively about today’s referee who generally had quiet undemonstrative control.
After a deserved week off, Heathfield next visit old foes and neighbours Cranbrook who have been having a difficult start to the season but who today appear to have posted a decent, albeit losing, performance away at Bromley. (4 Nov 2.30)