U7s off to a flying start
Heath Under 7s stepped onto the competitive rugby field for the first time ever on Sunday, at the Chichester RFC festival. With a big contingent of new young players, Heath had entered teams into both the A & B draws, which included teams from Chichester, Brighton, Crawley and Pulborough. Team A beat Chichester, and Pulborough, but lost in a tightly fought game with Brighton, before going on to draw against Crawley. They finished a strong second in the group, with Brighton winning the group. Team B managed to go all the way winning all their group games and progressing to the final where they faced a strong team from Pulborough. After a very confident start, Heath led by 3 tries to nil and whilst Pulborough fought hard to get back into the game, Heath continued to pile points on the score board emerging winners by 7-3. All in all the Under 7s had a fantastic day in the autumn sunshine and the squad now looks forward to their next festival at Eastbourne on October 11th.

U8s & U9s send teams to opposite ends of the county
Heath Under 8s took 15 players to Chichester and 14 to Hastings to make sure the Club was represented in both festivals. The Chichester festival saw one of the closest A Pools in memory with Heath and Chichester both with 14 points and after a count up both sides had 23 tries for and 10 tries against. This meant that the pool was decided by the toss of a coin with Heath winning and going through to play in the overall final where they came runners up to a worthy Worthing side. The B pool was equally tough but the boys came through with two wins, one draw and one loss and the highlight of the day was young Sam Denslow who seeing that Brighton were short of a player offered his services demonstrating the true spirit of rugby. At Hastings the Heath teams also battled valiantly, coming out runners up to a strong Heathfield side who were undefeated all day.

At Hastings the Under 9s lost two against Eastbourne and Crowborough and won two against Heathfield and the host side Hastings & Bexhill. The squad demonstrated some amazing tackling for an age group new to contact rugby with just the occasional lapse in concentration which will improve with experience. The final game of the day was played at a blistering pace with the squad stellar in defence, forcing a number of important turnovers and showing their skill on the attack, evading the opposition defence and using the width of the pitch to spread the ball wide. At Chichester the U9s lost to Chichester and Brighton, drew against a strong Pulborough side and won convincingly against Crawley. This was a great day for the U9s squad who showed they have been learning good skills to put to use in their first contact season with some great tackles and effort by all and improving play on the pitch through the day.

Heath Rugby Club has mini and junior teams at all age groups Under 6s through to Under 15s - to join one of the squads who train or compete every Sunday morning throughout the season, contact Glen Jones, Heath Director of Rugby on glenjonesrugby@gmail.com