Horsham Women 1st XV vs Heathfield & Waldron Ladies

Sunday 11th February 2024

A brooding sky met the ladies as they convened at the Coolhurst ground early to catch up on run throughs as the atrocious weather on the previous Thursday had curtailed any meaningful practice. The early meet time was softened by the return to the luxurious changing rooms enjoyed by the team. This soon soothed the grumblings and happy faces were seen as the squad made their way to the now fortress like AGP. Run throughs over and pre-game briefings given, the ladies returned to the inner sanctum of warmth to don their game shirts.

Heathfield were waiting on the pitch for our smartly attired squad to arrive, in the changed strip of white and blue instead of the usual Horsham green. The game started as expected, close and physical, with Heathfield utilising their forward drive and initial upper hand in the scrums, but their back line struggling with distribution which played into Horsham’s hands. Having absorbed the forceful probes from the forwards, Horsham broke out with better distribution than the opposition which saw the ball pass through steady hands to arrive in the secure grasp of Kacey “Chips” Matthews, who, with sublime footwork, powered foreward and scored under the posts. A simple conversion by our kicking genius, Chloe “Shawn” Ansell.

Heathfield replied. Hard work from their forwards paid off and they scored out wide, but this meant the try went unconverted. From the restart “chips” Mathews strode menacingly through the visitors' defence to score again under the posts, with another simple conversion from our kicking machine “Shawn” Ansell. The Horsham props began to work out how to counter the Heathfield opposition and thereafter dominated, winning several balls against the head. A tight and fractious 1st half went as expected, but Heathfield were starting to tire.
14-10 to the hosts at half time.

Following a rallying speech from Captain Addison, the second half commenced with the dynamic and educated half time changes by our illustrious Head Coach Timothy Smith having a dramatic effect from the off. Chips Matthews scoring again, with another “Shawn” Ansell conversion, seemingly began to draw the game away from Heathfield, but the visitors dug deep and responded with another unconverted try to bring the score to 21-15. This turned out to be Heathfield’s last score as Horsham, seeing the opposition tire and heads drop, upped the pressure and began to turn the screw and show what a fortress the Coolhurst ground has become.

The last quarter saw dominance by the Horsham forwards, working in tandem with sublime handling from the backs, taking the game completely away from the visitors.

A sublime break from a quick tap penalty from Mrs “2 steps” Birch saw her clear and, as she dived to seemingly score under the posts, she was stopped in her tracks by an eye-watering high tackle which snapped her head back.– Penalty try. 28-15. Yellow card to Heathfield.

A furious second half saw yellow cards handed out like confetti. Our promising new player “Blue”, playing in her 1st team debut, received a yellow for not rolling away and Clare “it wasn’t me honest!” Brooks also received a card for some minor fracas, the Heathfield player receiving a reciprocal card meaning it was 13 vs 13 for a while.

Feeling cheated of a try, minutes later 2 step Birch used her searing pace to break through the middle of the Heathfield defence to finally touch down under the posts, converted by “Shawn”, bringing the score to 35-15

In the dying moments of the game a beautifully worked move found our replacement winger Kit “the hips” Ahweyevu scoring in the corner in a final flourish. “Shawn” having to take one more conversion attempt, and after losing her negotiations with the referee as to where to take the kick from, resulted in an attempt from far left on the touchline being her only miss of the day.

The final score of 40-15 depicts an easier win for Horsham than it was. In truth it was a hard-fought contest, with hard tackles and probing attacks from both sides, but Horsham’s pace, power and flair in the backline being the big difference between the 2 sides.

Scribed by Govner Softley
Edited by Fubar