The unbeaten league leaders duly claimed the anticipated bonus point win by six tries to one but this was their lowest score thus far in the season against a resilient home side who played the full eighty with admirable commitment and skill.
Conditions were as good as could be hoped for late November. Thankfully the forecast heavy rain did not arrive although there was some intermittent rain from about half time. The wind was across the pitch and not a factor. The pitch itself had good grass cover but was inevitably claggy which won’t have suited either side - on this evidence both like to play a fast open game.
The game opened ominously for Heathfield as Old Elthamians (OE) immediately moved their first possession wide right with pacy running and good hands ending with a try under the posts with barely two minutes on the clock. Notably the conversion was the only successful OE kick on the day.
Sadly in this move Harry Slinnhawkins received a nasty gash in the head and had to retire, replaced by Will Chambers who went on to have a fine all round game and was the coachs’ pick as man of the match.
Nonetheless Heathfield shrugged off this early setback and, aided by a sequence of OE penalties, repeatedly pressed into the visitors’ half and Toby Simpson was able to knock over two penalties to reduce the deficit (6-7).
However OEs soon extended their lead with some more good running following secure scrum possession with a try in the top right hand corner under the balcony.
Heathfield did have another long range penalty chance but it was just wide. Early in the second quarter good hands moved the ball to Simpson with a little space and he made a handy run into the bottom right hand corner but he couldn’t find a supporting runner and the chance was gone. However Simpson soon knocked over another penalty to keep his side right in touch at 9-12.
While the visitors probably had an edge in possession they were certainly not in complete control and Heathfield were managing some useful attacks, one of which resulted in a yellow card for one of the visitors for a high tackle. The penalty count had been mostly against OEs so this was not surprising.
However in the last minutes of the half some Heathfield penalties now allowed OEs to obtain an attacking lineout on the left hand side. A clinical catch and drive produced a try, probably for the OE hooker, Chris Sweet, who is the league’s top try scorer, I would suspect many from this phase of play.
The half time score of 9-17 reflected the run of play thus far and with the slight slope to come in their favour OEs would have been justifiably confident of the final result. Early OE pressure soon resulted in their bonus point try but the rain has obliterated my notes of how this was achieved.
Much of the third quarter was played in the home half and the Heathfield coaches can be pleased by how the team’s defensive organisation generally coped with an attack that has been scoring tries for fun elsewhere.
However near the end of the quarter Tom Cornwall was rightly binned for a deliberate knock on near his own try line. Although the resulting lineout in the bottom corner was turned over this was only a temporary relief and good hands ended with a try on the left hand side for the OEs.
Pleasingly Heathfield now played some of their best rugby of the day with good lines of running and support. Jay Massey-Taylor made some useful ground in open play and Jasper Folkes, amongst others, made some hard yards. This ended with a pile of bodies under the visitors’ posts and Tom Aldridge claimed the try, naturally converted by Simpson.
At 16-27 there was just a sniff of at least a losing bonus point for Heathfield. However they now handicapped themselves by a sequence of penalties ending with an attacking OE lineout in the left hand corner. This was repelled once and Heathfield may have been lucky not to be penalised with another yellow card for pulling the maul down. However the visitors made no mistake with their next catch and drive for their last try, probably to further extend hooker Sweet’s domination of the try scoring table.
By now the gloom was descending and many spectators will have been struggling to work out what was happening. There was just time for Heathfield to emphatically turn over a visitors’ scrum – while not producing any points this was a morale boosting moment based on the pack’s persistent efforts throughout the match.
The final whistle went soon afterwards. The 2.00 ko was certainly not too early and we still have several weeks to go before the winter solstice.
Especially in the second half the OEs lineout had been a reliable source of possession as Heathfield often had to kick out of defence. The OE second row Perry Parker caught my eye with his controlling efforts in this phase while they clearly have some pacy and skilful threequarters.
There was considerable difficulty in identifying especially good performances in the home side as so many did well. Apart from those mentioned above skipper Lucas Cuming put in a massive shift in defence while Ben Irwin controlled the game well with what possession was available.
The match was considerably enhanced by the fine refereeing of Steve Randall who more normally operates at a higher level. His calm game management and clear decision making was appreciated by all involved.
Losing games, however worthily, does not accrue league points so Heathfield will have to carry today’s level of performance and commitment into next week when they visit Beccs who had a perhaps surprising win today (29 Nov 2.00).