Horsham go down in dramatic finale

Horsham travelled to Dulwich with little at stake for the Green and Whites, although the home side required a minimum of a bonus point to ensure survival in London 2 South East, and no expectation of the dramatic finale to come.

With seven enforced changes from the previous starting line-up due to injury and unavailability this was always going to be a tricky fixture for Horsham.

The Green and Whites had exchanged two penalties a piece with Old Alleynians by the break, both kicked by Will Bell, with Horsham being penalised for being offside in the backs and a deliberate knock on, in a non-eventful first half. Gareth Wynne slotted the goals for Old Alleynians.

Both Joe Wilde and Dan Cass had made incursions through the Old Alleynians defence which came to nothing and it was the home side who looked the more threatening and would have scored but for sloppy handling.

Old Alleynians took the lead early in the second half when following a powerful rolling maul, Horsham were again penalised for offside in the backs and Wynne kicked the penalty.

Johnny Ordidge broke through the home defence which was carried on by Wilde and Matt McCabe to get out of their half, and although Old Alleynians regained possession Wilde read the pass of the opposition fly half well to intercept and run in to score from 35 yards.

Old Alleynians then bounced back with a try from Rhys Hopkins to lead 14-11 after Horsham conceded a free kick for pushing too early in the scrum, and then were marched back 10 yards for querying the decision.

The lead see-sawed again when McCabe made a break and Arun Thompson crashed through under the posts for his fourteenth league and cup try of the season, which was converted by Bell as Horsham retook an 18-14 lead.

When Mike Watts took a quick free-kick inside his own half and then kicked on, scrum-half Josh Mills was following up and regathered the ball which sat up nicely to race over to score. Bell slotted the conversion and Horsham appeared to have an unassailable 25-14 lead with ten minutes remaining.

Old Alleynians had other ideas and although they should have scored after a break through the Horsham defence but dropped the ball, on 75 minutes Will Unwin scored in the corner after a series of rolling mauls. The conversion attempt was missed as the deficit was narrowed to 25-19 but they had still achieved their primary mission of a losing bonus point to stay up.

But with a real spirit of adventure, rather than play out time, Old Alleynians fielded Horsham’s long kick-off and instead of clearing their lines they ran the ball out from inside their 22 to go the length of the field try and score one of the tries of the season. Wynne then kicked the conversion from close to the touchline under incredible pressure to secure an unlikely 26-25 win.

Horsham backs coach Richard Bell was disappointed with the last minute defeat, “It was a decent performance when you look at the number of changes we had to make but hats off to the guys who stepped up to play at this level.

It is however the most gutted I have ever felt after a game. They put in so much effort and the new players gave everything.
Although it was a bit disjointed you could see that the guys who came in have been training, we had good shape and they understood our systems in attack and defence.

We gave away a few too many penalties but the line out functioned well and the scrum got better as the game went on.
I thought we cancelled each other out in the first half but we took our tries well after the break and to be fair, they executed their final try very well.

Now we need to prepare to face Tunbridge Wells next week.”

Horsham’s next fixture is at home to unbeaten champions Tunbridge Wells on 23 April, who have swept all before them this season and are on course for a league and cup double. As knock out champions of southern England they face St Benedicts from Cumbria who are northern champions at Twickenham in the Intermediate Cup Final on 7 May.