Heathfield 60 Gillingham Anchorians 7
Heathfield defeated a game but limited Gillingham Anchorians by nine tries to one in ideal conditions on a good surface with minimal wind.
Gillingham may have arrived in a positive frame of mind having won their two previous games but were put firmly in their place by a Heathfield team that is playing pacy, accurate and ambitious rugby at present – at times over-ambitious but that is not a bad fault. Four of the nine tries came in the last quarter as the visitors ran out of steam – it may be unkind but that’s rugby!
However as a club Heathfield will take even more pleasure in the result of their 2nd team with their 40-15 win over a strong Hove 3s team. This was the first time this season that the 2s have had a full squad and there were plenty of people pushing for 1st team places which can only be good.
Tom Tingley tweaked a knee during the warmup so he moved to the bench and Kobe Tonkin started in the second row. With Tonkin just over 40 and Bryn Jones approaching that mark this was not the youngest team that Heathfield have fielded but you would have been hard put to have known this from their individual performances.
Early on a Tom Cornwall kick in loose play created an opportunity in the top corner and Sam Williams thought he had scored but was denied by the visiting touch judge. However shortly afterwards Sean Crozier opened the scoring with the only penalty kick of the day.
Almost immediately Ed Koops made the first of a number of handy runs in heavy traffic, carried on by Jack Brown and Fraser Goatcher before an outrageous offload by skipper Gus Taylor found Cornwall on a lovely line to touch down under the posts.
Gillingham were contesting fiercely and now had their best period of play on the day as a quick tap penalty on the home 22 was well-exploited down the slope resulting in a converted try. (10-7).
Gradually Heathfield started to impose themselves and eventually secured a good attacking position in the left hand corner from a penalty. Secure possession was repeatedly driven on and although Crozier probably committed himself too often at this point in his enthusiastic search for an opening eventually the heavy infantry did their thing and Goatcher worked his way over from short range.
On the half hour the visiting lineout again malfunctioned and for the third time an overthrow found Goatcher at the tail who duly got the backs moving and good hands finally led to Jeyden Rainbow touching down under the appreciative home balcony.
The Gillingham inside centre was one of their most effective players with some strong runs testing the home defence. He was now noted with a leg injury and was probably less influential thereafter. Meanwhile his opposite number Jones was placing some delightful positional kicks to keep the home team on the front foot. Eventually in the last play of the half the ball was moved quickly from right to left and Jack Brown dived over in the corner for the half time score of 25-7.
At half time there was concern for the referee who needed some physio treatment but this was one of the few times that he was noticed which is often the sign of a good ref. In spite of Heathfield missing several second rows for assorted reasons their lineout generally had a good day with young Tom Pritchard (38?) not bungling too many catches and the scrummage had a distinct edge in spite of the apparent weight advantage for the visiting team.
Rees Webb, Harry Reilly and Tingley duly came off the bench and all did well but Tingley was quite outstanding in spite of his reported knee twinge with some characteristic heavy duty tackling being especially effective.
Early in the half Williams appeared to have a chance in the bottom right hand corner from a chip ahead but he somehow failed to pick the ball up with the line beckoning. He made up for it.
Good hands by several including Cornwall and Goatcher resulted in an attacking position on the visiting 22 and from broken play Dion Comerford charged through for his first try for Heathfield and a 32-7 score line.
There was an inevitability about the last quarter as Heathfield surged down the ‘slight slope’ (apparently I always say this but it happens to be true – and you need to remember the hill at Waldron, mumble, grumble, mutter…)
Tingley forced his way onto the score sheet with a bullocking run from outside the 22 as the insistent home pressure developed. The referee sensibly had a word with both captains at this point as some tempers were fraying especially in the visiting front row.
The GIllingham inside centre now finally had to retire from injury which will not have helped their cause as scrum half Archie Adams combined with Williams to give Adams an easy run under the posts. Adams had an industrious and generally effective day under serious pressure. Then a brief Gillingham counter attack resulted in Jones receiving a team yellow for repeated offside.
As well as their 12, the visitors loosehead and number 8 were especially noted for their contributions on a difficult day for their team.
As the clock ticked down Tingley picked up his second try on the day following a chip by Williams and then in the last play Williams was given the ball in space near the half way line with just the floundering visiting tight head to beat. A few second later as he jogged back to give Crozier the ball for the conversion Williams will have been happy to acknowledge the work by the rest of the team that produced this sort of mismatch.
The league table and detailed results suggest that Bromley, Heathfield and Aylesford look to be the dominant teams but with just a quarter of the season gone nothing has been decided. There are plenty of booby traps remaining including Heathfield’s return visit to Gillingham in January.
Next week Heathfield make their first visit to Southwark Lancers (30 Oct 3.00).