Never say die defence

Horsham will certainly be battle hardened once they have completed this series of games against higher league opposition, this time against a side two levels above in London League 1 South.

The match was played over three twenty minute periods allowing unlimited substitutions which allowed both sides to fully utilise their 30 man squads.

Sadly for Horsham, Andy Gray who has rejoined the club after a couple of seasons at Chichester, and is expected to be an influential player, badly twisted his knee when competing for the ball straight from the kick-off and left the field, with it being unclear how long he will now be missing.

From the outset Haywards Heath tried to assert their greater physicality by running hard and direct but the Horsham defence was resolute and kept out wave after wave of attacks for the first ten minutes until Heath finally broke through to score.

The pattern of the game was quickly established with Heath being more dynamic in the contact areas and quicker in support to secure the ball whereas at times Horsham had players standing off, or just a bit slower to get involved, but putting their bodies on the line in defence. Physically Heath looked a little more powerful although Horsham did have the edge in the scrums.

With changes made for the second and third periods, Horsham were able to reveal the depth of their squad for this season, as the game became more open, and Matt Brown scored under the posts following a trademark dummy and step inside his man, followed by tries for Matt Goodsir and Will Bell.

There were stand out performances from Arun Thompson both in attack and defence, and big tackles made by the likes of Paul Talbot, Al Jones and Ryan Grover in the forwards and Lee Taylor and Aled Price in the backs.

It was a spirited display, with a never say die attitude against a powerful team. A couple of years ago Horsham would have been steamrollered by a side of the class of Haywards Heath and it shows the strides that have been made, the strength in depth and the competition for places.

In a friendly game on Saturday 24th August Horsham Lions, lead by skipper Mark Elliott, ran out comfortable 48-0 winners against East Grinstead Thirds.

The next friendly is away to higher ranked Heathfield & Waldron on Saturday 31st August.