In front of a large crowd of 200, already relegated Pulborough put in a spirited performance and never gave up, scoring a consolation try through Josh Haulkner in the 80th minute. There is a big gap between Sussex and London League rugby however Pulborough’s return to the lower level will surely be temporary and they will aim to bounce straight back, battle hardened, and armed with the knowledge of the standards required week in week out. The game was excellently controlled by former Premiership referee, David Sainsbury.

Horsham were determined to make a fast start and should have scored in the first minute when Number 8 Jonathan Whiting burst through an attempted tackle off scrum-half Alex Brew’s pass for what looked like a certain score under the posts but his own pass did not go to hand.

Whiting made no mistake a minute later from a push over scrum to ground the ball himself as the Green and Whites asserted their power, in what was already starting to look like a long afternoon for Pulborough, and the try was converted by captain Matt Brown.

After 7 minutes Jamie Gibbs ran a great line to come off his blind side wing to score under the posts, and with Brown slotting a simple conversion, the home side lead 14-0.

Pulborough stemmed the tide for a while, and it needed a good clearance kick by Brew to relieve the pressure. Fly-half Joe Wilde was also required to make a long kick upfield and a great chase and tackle by Tyler Aitken secured territory on the halfway line.

No quarter was given in the forward exchanges as Paul Talbot lead by example with his commitment in the contact area although Horsham were forced into a substitution as hooker Rob Grantham-Hill went off injured and was replaced by Giles Barber.

Horsham were dominating the scrummage exchanges and after 25 minutes Whiting scored again under the posts with the try converted. The Green and Whites were again disrupted following injury to flanker Matt Redmayne and he was replaced by Rob Clegg.

A Brew offload to man of the match Sam Bell saw him score his first try of the season with a scintillating break as he stepped past three defenders to glide in from 25 yards. Whiting then should have completed his hat-trick in another pushover scrum but was kicking himself for losing control of the ball in the act of scoring. Ryan Grover then added a further try after good work from the forwards.

Great inter-passing between Adam Day, Barber and Clegg lead to Day running in under the posts and then Aitken scored the seventh try of the half after excellent handling in the backs, at half-time with the score 41-0.

In the second-half kicking duties passed to Wilde as the previous four conversion attempts had been missed, and Horsham carried on in a similar ruthless vein. Aitken sliced through the defence to offload to Bell to score, and then Jonny Ordidge ran in under the posts unopposed.

Bell demonstrated his well balanced running skills to beat a couple of defenders and then off load to Whiting to crash through his man to pass on to the mobile Day in support to score under the posts.

Aitken delightfully delayed his pass for Bell to time his run through the gap to score and then a few minutes later Aitken added his second.

Ordidge then added his second try with an outside break to beat his man and run in from 30 yards and Bell completed the scoring with his fourth try with Wilde having slotted four conversions.

The final fixture of the season is on Saturday 13th April with the kick-off at 15:00 at Coolhurst against Gillingham Anchorians.

Horsham coach Nick Stocker had mixed views about the performance: “I am realistic that the players wanted payback for the defeat in December, but we must get away from the fixation of being up for local derbies and instead raise our game for playing the likes of Maidstone. At least four tries went begging and I think at times out handling was poor with passes too high or players having to check their run to take the pass which killed the flow. Our appetite was good and we dominated the scrum, line-out and breakdown areas. I think the front row were outstanding as a unit in both the tight and the loose but as a side we need to work harder and be more physical. Overall it was one of the more complete team performances this season. If I had to single out the performance of any one player it would be Paul Talbot whose work rate was outstanding. I thought David Sainsbury had an excellent game as referee and helped the game flow. Finally I will be planning a debrief with each player to set individual targets to improve areas such as weight, power, explosiveness etc over the course of the summer.”