Unfortunately your correspondant wasn't able to attend the game, so the report is based on snippets, hearsay, rumour, educated guesses and pure fiction. I'll leave it to you to guess which is which, but I'll start with an easy one...

With a number of players having flown back that morning from playing in the opening RWC fixture on Friday (told you it was an easy one) Horsham were high on confidence going into the start of the league season against Park House. Over the last couple of seasons the spoils have been divided between the two clubs, so this would be a good test to start the season.

It was evident during the game that despite some of the results Horsham's pre-season has clearly done its job. The team went in with a new confidence about them, and went about implementing the structures and patterns that have been developed over the summer. And although we didn't thank him for it at the time, Stocker's fitness sessions were also paying off and the team were grateful in the end.

Tries came from the front row pairing of Neal Holden and Rob Grantham-Hill (with a long-distance solo try, no less!) and the *ahem* 'experienced' number 8 Adam Harman, with Will Johnson converting one and kicking two penalties. Having scored three Horsham were disappointed not to get the fourth try for a bonus point in what added up to an encouraging opening to the campaign.

The new back row combination of Ryan Grover at 6 and Iain Fisher at 7 was also a positive, with both players having strong games.

Afterwards Head Coach Nick Stocker said: “Both teams are usually slow starters so we wanted to be the ones to get something out of it.

“Park House are a good side, they are awkward, they are one of those teams who grind out results and play the percentages. It gives us a good indication of the sort of rugby we are going to face this season.

“We controlled and executed our game plan as we expected, we secured first phase possession well and we were not threatened defensively and it helped that we had a good referee who controlled the breakdown well.

“What was really encouraging is that we have lots to work on. I think we fashioned five try scoring opportunities which we didn’t take due to decision making. If we did, we would have had a bonus point win.”

In case you wondered, the solo try from Rob wasn't one of the made-up bits. Seriously. The bit about being grateful for Stocker's fitness sessions was though. No matter how much fitter they made us, we still hated them. Sorry Nick.

TEAM

1. Nick Bell 2. Rob Grantham-Hill 3. Neal Holden 4. Simon Matterface 5. David Miller 6. Ryan Grover 7. Iain Fisher 8. Adam Harman 9. Will Johnson 10. Angelo Shepherd 11. Will Mayle 12. Jonny Ordidge 13. Liam Yeates 14. James Whiting 15. Tom Wright

16. Joe Green 17. Seth Wise 18. Arun Thompson