Heathfield 8 Bromley 20
Bromley were deserved winners of this SE3 League game although it was more of a contest than might have been expected given the relative league positions. Remarkably of the 30 starting players 13 were aged 20 or less and the visiting number 8 was the only person over 30 in both squads.
In spite of the volume of rain recently, Heathfield’s Cypress field was in excellent condition and with negligible wind there was no particular advantage from the conditions.
An early Bromley attack on the blindside of a breakdown gave them a good attacking position and Jayden Rainbow was rightly binned for killing good ball in front of the posts. However, apart from the resulting penalty there was no further damage to the score line as the home defence held firm with George Skinner and Tom Tingley in particular being noted with good defensive work.
Good positional kicking by fly half Toby Harrison helped Heathfield to build pressure on the visitors and a penalty was justified reward, taken by captain Lucas Cuming. Another good position in the top right hand corner look promising but the attacking lineout went wrong and the visitors were able to scramble clear. However they were being kept under pressure chiefly through the dominant Heathfield scrummage. A succession of scrums near the visitors’ five metre line produced a sequence of penalties and free kicks from which Bromley were perhaps lucky to emerge without a yellow card. On one occasion good scrum ball was moved wide right with an overlap beckoning but the wrong option was taken and the chance slipped away.
In the last few minutes of the half, Henry Ross replaced Harry Hodierne in the second row, Bromley added a second penalty and Cuming collected a justifiable yellow for tackling a man in the air.
The half time score of 3-6 was a fair reflection of the game thus far. The home scrummage clearly had an edge although the lineout had misfired until Ross arrived. Bromley had often looked more dangerous ball in hand and this duly decided the game in the second half as they scored two well taken tries based on good lines of running from deep.
Although no further damage was done to the score while Cuming was in the bin, Bromley started to put together some fine open play with their number 8 only just being stopped by some desperate defence. However they soon barged over from a subsequent lineout in the right hand corner.
Jez Burdett and Shrek Watkins now replaced Harrison and Jack Ruddock. However even these fresh legs could not contain a lovely line taken by the visitors’ full back in broken play to collect the decisive score under the posts (3-20).
In the deepening gloom (the 2.00 kickoff cannot come too soon) Heathfield were far from defeated and in the last few minutes they achieved a good attacking position in the left hand corner. The resulting scrum was completely dominated and, with advantage being played, Oli Robertshaw took the ball on before slipping it to Dan Jones who squeezed into the corner.
Notably both coaches afterwards referred to skillset when asked about what decided the game. Heathfield certainly had enough possession but Bromley were more effective and direct with their share. Two yellow cards will have handicapped the home side but it was some basic errors that probably made the difference and Bromley took their chances clinically. The Bromley coach picked out their flanker Godden Elliott for his performance.
Owen Hayhurst enhanced his growing reputation with a gritty performance especially in defence and deservedly received man of the match. All of the front row did well, especially Reece Webb who was picked out by the referee, along with Robertshaw who also looked effective in spite of his advanced years in this young team. Harrison had a very solid game and, although replaced, came back on when Burdett was injured to make some very positive contributions.
Bromley can now look forward to challenging for promotion to SE2 – Heathfield will say good luck with that and see you in a couple years. The home side can look forward to some winnable games and an eventual solid mid-table as this young side develops.
Next week Heathfield visit Old Dunstonians who are just above Heathfield in the league table but who have had some very variable results so far this season (23 Nov 2.30).