Horsham RFC fall short at Medway

The Green and Whites played with the elements in the first half and made a dynamic start with a try by Joe Blake after five minutes after a multi-phase attack. Oli Chennell added the extras for a 7-0 lead.

Horsham were playing with great tempo and created problems for the Medway defence. Both sides were challenging the defensive lines and Medway were rewarded with a penalty for offside at the breakdown.

The day Harlequins came to Horsham.

The Sussex side continued to use the strong wind to get in good attacking areas. After a great break from Marcus Condon, Henry Warwick touched down for the visitors’ second try, again converted by Chennell.

From the restart Horsham again had good field position and a break by the evergreen Jamie Redmayne supported by Nick Bell with some Ronaldo-style football kneed, dribbled and dived to score Horsham’s third try. Medway came back with a last minute try to make the half-time score 19-10 to Horsham.

The second half was a tale of poor discipline at the breakdown and offside line allowing Medway to build points through penalty kicks.

At 19-16 Joe Blake made a break on halfway feeding the ball to Declan Nwachukwu who appeared to be tackled without the ball and the ball went down.

This was Horsham’s last meaningful attack and two further penalties gave Medway a narrow victory, a disappointing end after a really encouraging first 40 minutes.

Horsham RFC bid farewell to foursome.

Horsham attack coach Richard Bell said: “We threw the game away with ill-discipline, I daren’t look at the penalty count. The second half was unacceptable and the lads know it.

“In the first half we played really great rugby, scored three well taken tries and were in control. Medway know they got away with one ... congratulations to them on their well-deserved promotion. We were the better side but poor discipline cost us.

“Andy Gray was our man of the match, he carried strongly all day and was outstanding in defence. The lads will learn from this and need to manage the referee’s interpretation better.

“We have four games remaining and our target is to finish 5th.”