VIDEO: Heath have hope and Hill possession

Their 0-27 reverse at Sidcup came with a young team containing 14 home grown players who showed commendable spirit despite being on the back foot for much of the time.

They had to work hard to gain possession from first phase and were always under pressure in the scrums, even though No 8 Nick Main worked wonders tidying up at the base.

The visitors defended impressively as Sidcup snapped up around 80 per cent of possession but were restricted to two tries in each half.

Sidcup’s answer to playing into a strong breeze was to drive the ball upfield through their big forwards.

The hosts were soon 10-0 up as an early penalty by George Montgomery, one of Heath captain Chris Turner’s rugby squad at South Downs College, was followed by a Richard Roddis try.

Heath conceded far fewer penalties than of late and even managed to avoid any yellow cards as they defended solidly.

Sam Fieldwick used the wind to put Heath into the home 22 and it was not until the 32nd minute that Roddis touched down again.

Things looked bleak for Heath at the midway point, 0-15 down and facing 40 minutes against the strong breeze.

But the balance of play was more even as the back row of Sam Drage, Will Hoare and Main were prominent, while Fieldwick, centres Jack Lucas and Gareth Quay (playing with 12 stitches in a wound sustained the previous week), and full back Robbie Fotheringham posed a few questions for the home defence.

Second team captain Alex Chard was also effective in his first team debut but Sidcup still added two more tries through Simon Vincent (55) and Culham Thomson (74, converted by Montgomery) to finish convincing winners.

By then Heath’s replacements were on, including club vice chairman Tim Hartley who answered a late call for a cameo 10 minutes at scrum half.

Burgess Hill made eight changes, promoting many 2nd XV players, as they went down 7-34 at home to high flying Thanet Wanderers.

They were 10-0 down in the opening 10 minutes and were 22-0 adrift at the midway point despite hooker Iain Campbell tackling everything that moved.

Hill regrouped at half time and came out all guns blazing as scrum half John Maple started to draw players and release his back row of Ben Dewey, Jon Phillpot and Adam Rezazadeh.

But they failed to cash in on their possession and on the hour Thanet picked up the scoring again.

Home winger Mike Jennings looked likely to score before pulling a hamstring and Thanet picked up the ball to stretch their lead to 34-0.

Maple and Dewey combined to send over Rezazadeh for a try that Will Pearson converted but Thanet had the last word to complete a 39-7 win.