The dramatic finale saw the referee award Horsham a penalty try following persistent infringements by the Dunstonians scrum which had seen the award of a succession of penalties upon which Horsham had been unable to capitalise.

A relieved head coach Nick Stocker said “I felt we fully deserved the win. We were dominant in the scrum, had solid line-out possession and played most of the game in their half.

It was our silly errors which gave them a foothold in the game, and allowed a team which had been contained to remain in contention when the result should have been put to bed much earlier.”

Despite the Green and Whites having the dominant scrum from the outset there was a lack of precision and fluency to Horsham‘s back play with poor passing and aimless kicking, and after one such kick and bad bounce after 5 minutes Dunstonians showed their clinical use of possession as their left winger rounded a couple of attempted tackles to run and score.

Horsham were quick to respond with a quick tap penalty from Matt Brown who dummied a couple of players and offloaded to the ever present Rob Grantham-Hill in support in a reprise of their double act last week to cross the line and level the scores.

The Horsham three quarters then showed that when they clicked they could be devastating as quick hands with perfect timing along the whole of the back line, with the Dunstonians defence fixed and unable to drift, saw a well timed release of the ball by Lee Taylor to Matt Goodsir to score in the corner for perhaps the best team try of the season so far.

Horsham being too slow to put the ball in at the line-out, and then dummying the throw, saw a free-kick awarded to Dunstonians who again showed that they could be ruthless with limited possession as their left winger ran in to score his second try.

The Green and White scrum then exerted their technical superiority to win the ball against the head with the peerless front row of Paul Talbot, Grantham-Hill and Giles Barber to the fore, supported by the power coming from the second row of Ryan Grover and Jonny Goward, to drive back the Dunstonians pack for Brown to dive over the line for Horsham to lead 15-10 going in to break with both kickers having an off day with all conversion and penalty attempts missed.

With Adam Day on at half time for Talbot, who was struggling to breathe whilst playing with a chest infection, Dunstonians regained the lead at the start of the second half with a penalty try as Grantham-Hill was yellow carded for not releasing the ball.

The reconstituted Horsham seven man pack, with Ben Pirt now at hooker, was still driving back the eight man Dunstonians scrum in a demoralising show of strength, but this dominance was not turned to Horsham’s advantage as Nick Bell’s loose kick fell into the grateful arms of the Dunstonians prop who ran in under the posts.

With Dunstonians leading 24-15 and winning the kicking duels for territory it looked as if time was running out for Horsham before a fight back was launched.

Brown took another quick tap and go and broke through several tackles to score his second although there was some doubt as to whether he had lost control of the ball in the act of scoring.

Horsham then camped on the Dunstonians line for the last ten minutes in an attempt to break down the defence, until the referee lost patience with persistent infringements and the victory was sealed.

Stocker said “At the end we knew we had to be patient and keep it in the scrum until they infringed because of the confidence we had our power.

Ryan Grover is my man of the match for his excellent work in the line-out and forcing turnovers. Lee Taylor should be mentioned for his good running, I thought James Whiting had a good game, and Nick Bell was his usual effervescent self.

It was a good team performance but we need to make sure that we concentrate for every single minute of the game otherwise a side with good wingers like Dunstonians will capitalise. I felt however that they did not put any pressure on our line except from our own errors.”

Horsham’s next game is in the league at home to Sheppey on Saturday November 2, followed by the Rugby Club’s Bonfire and Fireworks Night.

Horsham: Talbot (capt) (Day 40), Grantham-Hill, Barber; Grover, Goward; Pirt (Smith 60), Bell, Jonathan Whiting; Brown, Price; James Whiting, Ordidge, Taylor, O’Rahilly (Phillip 65); Goodsir