Heathfield 55 Pulborough 19
Heathfield duly secured a nine tries to three win over a game Pulborough side who contributed throughout the full eighty minutes to an entertaining contest.
Conditions were almost ideal on a dry day with a little breeze across the pitch not being a factor. Heathfield had the best possible start as Henry Ross collected the opening kick (just) and put his team on the front foot, carried on by skipper Gus Taylor and Tom Cornwall before Sean Crozier arrived at the perfect moment and he had the pace to outstrip the remaining defence, converting his own try.
Almost immediately good lineout ball was carried well by Lars Thorkildsen and Cornwall before Sam Brown charged over for the try. Thorkildsen and especially Brown went on to have good all round games. With two tries in four minutes this could have become a rout. Perhaps Heathfield started to take their opponents too lightly but a long cut out pass by Munch May was easily intercepted and the grateful visiting recipient on his own 22 had the pace to touch down under the posts at the other end.
After this frenetic opening the game settled down a little. Heathfield were still trying to play some expansive rugby with a cheeky break by Crozier that almost found Sam Goatcher on a searing run but the pass went down.
Heathfield were looking positive and a threatening attack on the left hand side was thwarted by a deliberate knock on with the inevitable result for the visiting centre. From the resulting lineout the ball was worked through several pairs of hands before Fraser Goatcher, for the second week in a row, worked his way over from short range.
However no one had told Pulborough that they were in trouble and they now had a good period of play pushing into the left hand corner, A home defensive scrum led to a clearing kick which failed to find touch and the visiting left wing ran back to score a fine try in the corner. The score of 19-14 may have briefly suggested this was going to be a close contest.
Just before half time good hands, especially by F Goatcher, found Cornwall who this season needs no second invitation and his try, duly converted put a more comforting look to the scoreboard at half time as well as securing the try bonus point (26-14).
At half time all three home replacements came on with Rees Webb, Tom Pritchard and Toby Simpson all making a positive impact with Simpson being especially effective. Pulborough also utilised their sole replacement and their admirable 51 year old prop certainly held his own.
The home coaches were afterwards appreciative of their team’s performance in the second half as they generally kept concentration and shape, with points duly following.
The next try was a good team effort as clean lineout ball won by Ross was worked through multiple hands before Jack Brown joined his brother on the score sheet.
Sadly Ross now had to retire with a shoulder injury and his distress was obvious and completely understandable at what initially looked to be serious setback on his first game back after a lengthy absence for concussion.
Heathfield now had a period of pressure in the bottom corner and Cornwall may have thought he had poached another try at the bottom of a ruck but the ref decided otherwise, However from the following scrum Taylor scored a classic number eight try muscling his way through the opposition back row defence.
The next try came on the sixty minute point from a skilful and tricky run by Crozier who found Simpson near the half way line so he had plenty to do before jogging under the posts. Soon afterwards a lineout was well exploited with a rolling maul and then a blindside break by May found Simpson who still had some work to do for his second on the day.
The last home try came from solid scrum possession followed by good hands which allowed Archie Adam to finish well.
In spite of the 55-14 score line Pulborough finished strongly and they pressed repeatedly into the home half. Taylor made one impressive run in heavy traffic from his own 5 metre line to near half way before being hauled down. But Pulborough kept coming and eventually their left wing capped his very decent game with a score in the corner.
Pulborough now had a sniff of a try bonus point but Heathfield did enough in the last minutes to contain that threat. With limited resources on the day Pulborough contributed fully to the game with their coach afterwards picking their scrum half as their best player on the day.
Results elsewhere show that Vigo and Cranbrook are starting to challenge the top three of Bromley, Aylesford and Heathfield which certainly makes for a competitive league. However it may be noteworthy that Heathfield have by far the best points difference, whatever the league points may say. The situation may become clearer in two weeks time in one of the key games of the season when Heathfield visit league leaders Bromley. (27 Nov 2.30).