Heathfield Ladies overcome weather and tough Horsham team

The excellent all-weather surface at Horsham and the floodlights allowed the game to go ahead in circumstances that would have seen a game on a grass pitch not possible. Continuous rain and a fluctuating but strong breeze made for difficult handling conditions.

Early Heathfield good support play and a penalty put the home side under pressure and Amber Lovick was just denied in the corner by a fine last-ditch tackle.

However two more tapped penalties allowed the visitors to keep the pressure on and soon Megan Plane was able to step her way over for the opening try. Impressively Plane converted five of the six tries.

There was no further scoring for nearly 20 minutes as the teams fought to take control. One pleasing feature, from Heathfield’s viewpoint, was the number of effective combinations with Georgia Reed-Davies, Laura McGee, skipper Carol Saunders, Becky Taylor and Abi Bandtock contributing in various combinations to many useful carries.

Gradually Heathfield built into the home 22 and solid scrum possession was moved right and then back left for Phoebe Morgan to work her way over after 25 minutes.

In the last minutes of the half a big kick out of defence by Horsham was run back by McGee who found Reed-Davies on a good line and was then on hand to receive the return pass to claim a fine try.

With three tries on the board, Heathfield were keen to collect the fourth and all-important bonus point try.

An increasingly dominant scrum helped Heathfield into a strong position in the right hand corner. Taylor was just denied by some valiant defence and soon afterwards McGee was adjudged to have been held up after another handy run.

Approaching the last quarter the search for the bonus point try was becoming a concern especially when a fine run by Velvet Turner was just denied by a great last ditch tackle by the home full back Rachel Marchesan.

However bonus point concerns were finally assuaged when Bandtock charged over from a 5m tap penalty.

With 15 minutes left Turner broke through some despairing tackles to collect a deserved try. Soon afterwards yet another McGee break gave the ball to Toni Norman who finished well to collect her first try at this level.

Heathfield next entertain Medway, the only side to have beaten them this season, so that game on Sunday, January 19 (2pm) should be a good contest – conditions permitting.