Sevenoaks look the real deal

Sevenoaks showed why they are one of the title favourites, along with Tunbridge Wells, and near promotion certainties when they ruthlessly dispatched Horsham at Knole Paddock.

There was to be no repeat of the tight contest in November when the Green and Whites ran Sevenoaks close and were indeed leading with ten minutes to go.

In a display of clinical rugby the Kent side ran up four tries in the first half with scores from Tino Vaihu, Will Thorpe, Matt Bates and Ollie Shirtcliff to put the game beyond Horsham.

The Green and Whites preparation however was not helped however when a car containing three players took the wrong exit off the motorway and arrived one minute before kick-off.

Playing into the wind, Horsham found it difficult to break out of their half in the face of a tight defence, and when Sevenoaks attacked Vaihu, Thorpe and Isaac Winter found it far easy to penetrate some weak tackling from the visitors.

Horsham were playing too much rugby in their own 22 and from a missed kick to touch Vaihu stepped his man in the centre who slipped in the heavy conditions and he charged through to score under the posts.

Fly-half Winter then slipped through the Horsham defence untouched to pass to the supporting blind side flanker Thorpe who finished powerfully.

Horsham were regularly conceding turnovers and on a rare foray into the Sevenoaks half having gone through several phases they won a penalty but Tom Johnson missed his attempt at goal.

Full back Matt Bates dummied his man and was through to score and then Shirtcliff scored after James Johnson had a clearance kick charged down.

Horsham turned around at the break 26-0 down, and at the start of the second half mounted a period of pressure without really looking like scoring before Rob Streather scored the first of his two tries from a turnover.

Will Bell made a great try saving tackle and there were isolated break outs by Mike Watts and Max Wilson but execution was letting Horsham down until a perfectly weighted crossfield kick by Tom Johnson was fielded by Watts after 73 minutes who kicked on and won the race to touchdown under the posts with a superb piece of opportunism.

Jordan Smith cleared the danger when Sevenoaks kicked through but there was still time for the home side to put a gloss on proceedings when Winter ghosted through the Horsham defence from first phase scrum ball before passing to the supporting Streather to complete his brace under the posts.

Horsham head coach Nick Stocker said: “It was a bad day at the office. We started slowly conceding four tries in 25 minutes, and thereafter we were playing catch up rugby on a poor pitch against a good team.”

When asked what was difference between this easy win for Sevenoaks and the close contest when the sides last met Stocker said: “First up tackles. We didn’t tackle for the first 25 minutes and showed them too much respect. We bounced off tackles by going in too high and conceded some soft tries. We need to start quicker and be alert at crucial times. Players arriving as the game is about to start of course does not help our preparation and mind set.

In the face of aggressive defence from Sevenoaks we didn’t get our patterns going to generate any go forward, and draw their defenders in enough and so we were not effective at breaking them down.

In fairness their coach said this was one of their best performances of the season.

I thought we took our try well. Tom Johnson had spotted that their winger was hanging back for the kick so he put it just behind their outside centre for Mike Watts to catch on the full. It showed our attacking strength.

The positives to come out of the game were the performances of Rich Tredgett who has been out for five weeks, Arun Thompson who put in his usual good performance, Nick Bell who was playing well until his injury, Max Wilson who is really coming on as a player, and Mike Tredgett who carried well, retained possession, didn’t force the offloads and kept giving us opportunities to move the ball forward.”

Horsham’s next fixture is at home to Ashford who presently lie bottom of the table on 20 February.

Horsham: W Bell; Watts, J Johnson, Ordidge (Carvell), McCabe, T Johnson, Mills; Brady, Stone, Barber; Harcus, R Tredgett (capt) (Wilson); N Bell (Smith), Thompson, M Tredgett