Heathfield eventually collected a home win against a robust Park House in a closely fought contest noted, for me at least, by the serious respect between the two teams.
Conditions had a significant impact on the game. After a week of variable weather – and variable forecasts which were often wrong – the game was played on the Wilson-Rhodes pitch which demonstrated the stickiness of Sussex clay, especially on the lower side of the pitch where running was always difficult. The surface was dry but very soft in places and the ball continually collected sticky mud to make handling difficult.
The first quarter was one of the most deeply forgettable periods of play that I have seen this season. This is not to denigrate the commitment by both sides but everyone struggled to deal with the conditions with multiple handling errors. Most of the play was in the home half but without Park House offering any significant penetration. They did reach the home try line with one forward drive but were penalised for holding on just short.
Early in the second quarter Heathfield scrum ball on their own 10m line was carried through multiple hands into the right hand corner for the first significant visit to the Park House 22. Heathfield were starting to put together some useful attacks with Tom Tingley often being prominent so it was no surprise when Tingley finished another piece of good handling with a try on the right hand side. Toby Simpson converted.
At about this point a stranger made an entrance. After one of the dreariest months in memory (well mine anyway) the rest of the game was bathed in welcome weak sunshine.
In the last few minutes Park House secured an important turnover and good hands took them into the top right hand corner. The home lineout malfunctioned and soon afterwards the visitors efficiently worked their way over in the right hand corner. The conversion was missed.
With no significant slope advantage the 7-5 half time scoreline was a fair reflection of a close contest. Heathfield had been concerned before the game by the size of the visitors front five but in the event the home scrummage always secured their own ball, albeit sometimes under pressure, so the home front row unit all take much credit. This is no coincidence as the same front three have started the last three games and this familiarity is starting to pay off, against often bigger opposition units as today.
Heathfield started the second half brightly and a lovely break by Lucas Cuming looked likely to lead to a score under the posts but his final pass was just slapped down (fairly) by a defender. However continued pressure resulted in a simple penalty chance, duly knocked over by Simpson. (10-5)
Park House were a long way from beaten and now had an extended period of pressure. They were not helped by missing touch from a penalty and another good attacking position in the left hand corner was ruined by a great steal at the breakdown by Tingley.
Entering the last quarter good lineout ball was again carried on by Tingley and after multiple phases Simpson touched down in the left hand corner although he just failed to convert.
There was plenty of time left for Park House to achieve a result and much of the play was in the home half but the home defence generally did enough. Charlie Hannan came off the bench in the second half for his first appearance for the team and caught the eye with some solid and effective defensive work in this period.
Another replacement Tom Reilly made a cunning interception that looked likely to lead to a score but the visitors’ defence just did enough.
There was no further scoring in what had been a seriously well-contested match. Park House will probably feel, with some justification, that that they were worth at least a losing bonus point and I wouldn’t disagree.
The home coaches were naturally pleased with the result and the team performance: apart from those mentioned above and the obvious MoM Tingley, they gave mention to George Hayter for some useful carries, skipper Gus Taylor for all round efforts and Reilly for some nice work late on.
However the lineout remains an area with room for improvement – but nowadays this is a complex area in which those of us who hanker after the simplicity of front, middle, back with none of this nonsense about lifting are not qualified to comment – so I won’t.
Heathfield will take much pleasure in the win today by the Rangers over Uckfield 2s 17-12 I think. Particular credit goes to the team manager Craig Martin who scored the decisive try today on his 40th birthday – respect!
Next week Heathfield entertain Ashford in a match postponed from a couple of weeks ago – (8 Feb 2.00) Hopefully the weather gods will have relented a little by then.