After two good weeks Horsham struggled to produce the same form at the Pulborough tournament, suffering from a mixture of injuries, line-up changes and generally struggling to get away from the festival mindset and deal with the shortened 20-minute game structure.

In the first game against Guildford 2s some good attacking play saw Horsham take a first half lead to go into the break 5-0 up, but some weak front-line tackling allowed Guildford to get into their offloading game in the second half, eventually scoring to level the scores at 5-5. The kicker missed the conversion, and the game finished a draw.

The second game against Brighton 2s started with better defence from Horsham, with some strong goal-line tackles forcing the knock-on and a Horsham scrum 5m out. Unfortunately the ball went straight through the channel and fired out of the back of the scrum, and the scrum half was able to pounce on it for the opening try. A break in the second half brought out some good cover defence from Horsham, but Brighton were able to get numbers to the breakdown and recycle the ball to score down the blindside, ending the game at 12-0.

Against Seaford in the third round Horsham were looking more fluid in attack and the phases were starting to come together. Despite going 5-0 down in the first half some stronger defence and better composure in attack saw good hands to put the ball wide, and a late try and conversion gave Horsham the game at 7-5.

The final game against hosts Pulborough was played in front of a large crowd, with both sides looking to end the day on a win. Horsham started the stronger, and good pressure on Pulborough forced a kick out of defence that didn't find touch. Horsham successfully counter attacked to go 5-0 up,a lead that could have been doubled if a second scoring chance later on hadn't gone begging. Pulborough came back stronger in the second half, and when the Horsham defence relaxed for a moment as the fly half juggled a loose pass Pulborough took full advantage to score under the posts. Horsham went looking for the winning score but Pulborough shut them out to take the game 7-5.

Despite the disappointing result there were some definite positives to take out of the day. Attacking moves were looking slicker, and the willingness to attack from turnover ball was encouraging. Tom Hedley, Tom Gilbert and Christian Squire all had very impressive senior debuts, and the overall attitude of the squad was positive.

With only one more pre-season fixture against Lewes before the league kicks off Horsham still have plenty to work on but things are looking positive.