Uckfield V Heath

With the league already won, it was important for the coaches and the squad that the Heath boys brought back a win from Uckfield to maintain their unbeaten league record. However, it was always going to be difficult for the boys to maintain their focus with the title already secured. In addition, at the beginning of the season, this away game had been identified as a potential title decider between the two teams. Therefore, there was every possibility that this might be the one that ruined this unbeaten record. How wrong this ultimately proved to be, as the boys produced one of their most consummate performances, to run out as emphatic 0-54 winners!

After the previous day's battering from Storm Hannah, Sunday was virtually Spring like with almost ideal rugby playing conditions, the only problem being a swirling wind that would be difficult for the kickers to read. Uckfield kicked off and Heath dominated from the start, Daniel Grant was first on the score sheet after 3 minutes of play with a typical short range driving run, whilst carrying a few tacklers with him.

Former Uckfield player, Adam Southern, was next to score on six minutes, using his power and strength to burst through a number of tacklers and about 5 minutes later it was the Heath captain, Bobby Collins who was next to score. This time he was able to put the ball down over the line without dropping it or having it ruled out by the ref! William Goodwin was successful with the conversion to make it 0-17 with only about 10 minutes played. The fourth and bonus point try came a couple of minutes later when prop Adrian Illes was able to showcase his immense strength by carrying a number of Uckfield players over the line with him near to the corner. The score was 0-22 with about a quarter of the match played.

The rest of the half continued with Heath’s dominance and if it hadn’t been for the Uckfield full back, who had an excellent defensive game throughout, Heath would have scored a few more. However, there was time for Heath to score two more tries before half time, through Daniel Grant, getting his second, and James Watson. After which, the half time score stood at 0-32.

With potential similarities to the previous day’s England game and the wind probably favouring Uckfield in the second half, the coaches emphasised the importance of remaining focused and avoiding any complacency. The coaches also requested an improvement to the Heath rucking, where support had occasionally been noticeably late or virtually non-existent.

With the usual seven changes to the Heath ranks at half time, it was important for the team to settle quickly and avoid any significant momentum shifts. After a fairly even 10 minutes or so of play, it was Christian Streater, having an excellent overall game, who opened the scoring for Heath in the second half, showing some excellent footwork to skip through the Uckfield defence. Adam Southern, who also had an excellent overall game then got his second try with about 20 minutes of the second half played. William Goodwin was successful with the conversion to make the score 0-44.

Kai Jutson scored the next try with about 5 minutes left and the score was at 0-49. The Heath team then battered the Uckfield defensive line from short range for the last 5 or so minutes in an attempt to take the score past 50. There also appeared to be a strong team desire to get the ball to Daniel Grant so that he could complete his hat-trick. This duly came with the last play of the game when the ball was fed to Dan who crashed over from about 2 yards out. The whistle blew on a resounding 0-54 win for Heath and an unbeaten league record.

With the exception of some occasionally average rucking, this was an absolutely sublime Heath performance with every single squad member contributing. There were a number of noticeable turnovers at maul time where the Heath defence of both backs and forwards were able to hold up the Uckfield ball carriers and it was moments like this that prevented Uckfield from getting any offensive foothold in the game. In addition, the boys' discipline was much improved, possibly motivated by the boot washing agreement with the Rams, they conceded an all time low of only 4 penalties.

Whilst everyone in the squad performed above expectation, special mention goes to Adam Southern and Christian Streater for the way that they helped to lead the forwards and backs, respectively. Matt Cains again put in another commanding performance to mirror his performance from last week. Daniel Grant also gets a mention for his hat trick. However, today’s Man of the Match award goes to full back William Goodwin for the way that he learnt and evolved from last week’s performance to secure every high ball (and didn’t allow any to bounce!) and then complete a number of searing breaks that pierced and turned the Uckfield defence on every occasion.

Compared to last season’s mid-table finish, this has been an excellent unbeaten league campaign for Heath. However, it’s the points difference that really tells the story of how hard the boys have worked to get to where they are now. A record that stands at eight wins from eight games, with total points scored of 312 and total points conceded of 44, to provide a points difference of 268, shows how dominant Heath have been this season. The next closest points difference is currently 75. There now follows a few friendly games against teams from the league above and it’s important that the boys continue with this momentum to show themselves how competitive they could be in the league above. This is especially as the season draws to a close and the boys move next season into Colts rugby.