Sevenoaks just edged past a gutsy Heathfield team in an eventful and entertaining contest. As befits a game between 2nd and 3rd in the league this was a closely fought contest decided by some tiny margins.
At the time of writing there was no definite news about the potentially serious injury to Sevenoaks player Oliver May. Heathfield will hope to hear good news about him very soon.
The game was played at Waldron which was where the club played all its games for the first couple of decades before moving to Cross In Hand. The idiosyncrasies of the location, especially the slope, have a strong influence on any game there which certainly applied today.
In the early stages Sevenoaks, playing up the slope, looked a good side with excellent handling across the pitch. However as the game settled down the home set piece was starting to provide a good foundation. Lineout ball was moved wide for Charlie Hannan and then Jay Massey-Taylor to make good yards into the visitors’ 22. While this was duly contained more pressure was being applied in the scrum where Heathfield had a clear edge at this point. Intriguingly at a penalty on the visitors’ 22 Heathfield chose to scrum rather than going for the corner. And then rather than driving the scrum on, the ball was immediately moved wide right into the bottom corner and eventually Tom Tingley, with impressive athleticism from the scrum, arrived to bosh his way through the last tackles for the opening try.
Sevenoaks now started to build some serious pressure into the home half. A period of play near the home try line involved some messy situations and one charged-down kick which could have gone anywhere but the home defence, one of this side’s strongest features, did just enough.
Then good scrum ball near his own 5m line was taken on by fly-half Ben Irwin in a startling break which took him up to the half way line only for the linking pass to go astray. Sevenoaks returned to the attack and soon built a threatening attack along the right wing which was halted by a tackle by Tom Reilly which was adjudged to have been dangerous leading to a red card.
It was clear that the injury to Ollie May was serious and that he could not be moved. However the second pitch at Waldron was available and the rest of the game was played there. It should be acknowledged that this is a smaller than standard pitch which will have been of benefit to Heathfield being a man short for the rest of the game.
Heathfield started the second half brightly. Good scrum possession was moved wide left for Toby Simpson and Zac Coxen to go close in the bottom corner. In spite of playing up the slope and being a man short Heathfield continued to have plenty of chances into the visitors’ half. A longish range penalty by Simpson was just wide and this soon looked a potentially important miss as Sevenoaks played some decent rugby to surge back down the other end. This ended with serious pressure under the home posts before the ball was moved wide left and eventually they charged over from short range in the corner. Critically the difficult conversion was slotted to provide a 5-7 score line entering the last quarter.
The home scrum was continuing to provide secure possession (apart from once which Ollie Smith assures me was just a poorly timed engage) and this allowed skipper Lucas Cuming to make a big run up the middle resulting in a kickable penalty, duly slotted by Harry Westgate, and retake the lead 8-7.
With less than fifteen minutes remaining the game was well in the balance. Irwin now made another huge run which was taken on up to the visitors’ 5m line but ended by a knock-on. The visitors’ scrum held out but the pressure was still on and soon another penalty allowed Westgate to stretch the lead (11-7) with less than ten minutes remaining. Irwin had a mixed game with some lovely back play but some sub-optimal kicking.
Sevenoaks were now hammering away in the home half. A kick out of defence was collected by the visitors’ right wing who proceeded to sell the most outrageous dummy and then charge down the touchline into the bottom corner. The resulting penalty was efficiently exploited by a clinical lineout catch and drive for the decisive try.
Although a couple of minutes remained Sevenoaks were able to control possession and then kick into touch once the clock had run down.
The Sevenoaks coach afterwards particularly complimented his own flanker Louis Stone who had a strong day against the generally larger home back row.
Heathfield coach Sam Goatcher was delighted with the whole team performance with 14 men playing uphill against one of the top teams in the lead. The back row unit of Tingley, Sam Walley and Jasper Folkes are becoming a particular strength with plenty of competition for their places. Cuming and Massey-Taylor were also noted for their strong performances with the latter being MoM.
After a well-earned week off, Heathfield next visit Dover who are just three points behind in the very congested top part of this Counties 1 Kent league table. (14 Feb 2.00)