Crawley V Heath

After the debacle of last week’s away trip into south west London, it was reassuring this week to only have a short drive to nearby Crawley RFC, and a return to league action. However, whilst the travel situation was greatly improved, the weather conditions had returned to normal with Storm Freya bringing rain and strong winds. A previous U15 game on the same pitch had also already made the going very heavy underfoot.

Heath kicked off into the strong wind and were immediately on the offence. However, Crawley’s defence was impressive and held resolutely firm against waves of Heath attacking plays. Heath’s offensive dominance and Crawley’s imposing defence was pretty much a reflection of the entire game, with Heath having to work very hard to find the necessary openings. After about 10 minutes, it looked like Heath no. 8, Bobby Collins, had been able to unlock the Crawley defence, but, unfortunately, he dropped the ball over the line as he was in the act of scoring.

However, it only took a further five minutes or so for Heath’s regular opening try scorer, Liam Macaulay, to once again step his way through the Crawley defence for the opening score. Whilst the conversion was missed, this opening score helped to settle the Heath side, who were beginning to show a few signs of impatience.

With about 20 minutes gone, Crawley had a rare foray into the Heath half. However, the ball found its way into the hands of the Heath full back, William Goodwin, who from about the Heath 10 yard line showed superb pace and balance to skirt around the Crawley defence, whilst carefully avoiding the touchline for a significant part of his run, to score an excellent solo try under the posts. Will duly converted his try to take the score out to 0-12. A few minutes later, Liam Macauley was able to work his way over from close range for his 2ndtry. The conversion was missed and so the score remained at 0-19, which is how it stayed until half time.

Considering the quality of the Crawley defence and the strength of the wind that Heath were playing into, the coaches were reasonably satisfied with this score line. Once again, the coaches made seven changes at half time to give the entire squad some game time. With the strong wind now behind them, the Heath coaches were expecting a quick score and the fourth try for the bonus point. However, with a combination of good Crawley defence, forced Heath passing, impatience and numerous knock-ons, it took about 10 minutes before Heath were able to secure the valuable bonus point try. This eventually came after a clever cross kick from the Heath 10, Christian Streater, behind the onrushing Crawley defence, with the Heath 13, Oliver Owens winning the foot race to dive on the ball as it rolled over the line. The conversion from wide out was missed and so the score remained at 0-22.
This fourth score and a reasonable margin between the two teams appeared to relax the Heath side and after a set play in the backs, with some wonderful handling via a number of pairs of hands, the Heath replacement winger, Barney Scott, found himself outflanking the Crawley defence and with a good turn of pace was able to squeeze in at the corner for the fifth score to 0-27.

With about 10 minutes left, the Heath replacement prop, Daniel Grant, was able to crash over from short range for the sixth and final try, which was converted by Will to create a final score of 0-34 to Heath. Unfortunately, before the final whistle, there were a few issues of ill-discipline from both teams, which led to a red card for a Crawley player and a yellow card for a Heath player. This was a shame, as up to this point, it had been a good, hard fought game, with good discipline from both sides.

Considering the difficult weather conditions and notwithstanding a number of silly knock-ons early in the second half, this was a good performance from the Heath team, who had to both work hard for their scores and understand the best ways to unlock a well drilled opposition defence. One minor criticism, which was evident for much of the game, was Heath runners being isolated with supporting players arriving too late. They will need to improve on this in their remaining two league games.

There were excellent performances from all of the Heath props, Adrian Illes, Lewis Goodall and replacement, Daniel Grant. Bobby Collins, Kai Jutson and James Watson were also conspicuous around the park with a number of dominant driving runs. However, today’s Man of the Match award goes to the Heath hooker, Alfie Bedford, for his fearless play when dropping on a number of loose balls and his general aggressive play at ruck and maul time, where he frequently made a nuisance of himself on opposition ball.

Next week, sees Heath play their final home league game against Pulborough, who had a reasonable win today against one time league favourites, Uckfield. Therefore, Heath will need to be fully focused if they are to maintain their undefeated league record.