The boys were fired up for this match from the start with Craig Dent bursting for the line following an interception after 2 minutes, only to be caught by a great cover tackle by the Guernsey defence.

With plenty of posession it was disspointing to concede a score against the run of play, when following a kick & chase to the Horsham try line, the referee gave "the benefit of the doubt" to the attacking side although it was not clear who had grounded the ball!

The try was not converted and Horsham piled on the pressure winning plenty of penaltys due to Guernsey becoming frustrated and infringing at the break down.

Unfortunately Horsham could not turn this pressure into points until George Carbone burst down the touchline to score in the corner evading two tackles in the process. The try was not converted but this levelled the scores at 5-5.

Enjoying plenty of ball in hand the backs played a runnning game & Ras Maddum, playing at scrum half for the first time, darted through the Guernsey defence to score and convert his own try. 5-12.

The hosts did not give up and Horsham momentarily switched off as a Guernsey player ran in from 30 yards unopposed to score a converted try to level the scores at 12-12.

The turning point in the game came when Guernsey were camped in our 22 and had a series of 4 scrums with Horsham winning 2 against the head but failing to clear the danger. Twice Matt Allen (playing centre for only the second time) had to ground the ball in his own dead ball area as there was no time to kick clear with the attacking Guernsey players bearing down on him. Fortunately the scrum stayed firm with Sam Minto & Tom Hamblet propping well against the opposition.

Eventually we did clear our lines and this composed play under constant pressure gave us the confidence to increase the intensity of our play. This paid off with Calum Punter scrambling over the line to score his first try for the club in his first proper game. This was converted by Matt Allen to make the score 12-19.

The team was making very few mistakes, strong in the tackle, physical at the breakdown with great support play around the pitch.

Guernsey were becoming more frustrated hitting our boys with a number of high tackles and following the referee talking with their captain he had no option but the send a player to the sin bin after the head high tackles continued.

With a man down & Horsham playing some great rugby Callum Robison at 6"3" had a mismatched altercation with the much shorter Guernsey prop (who had a great game) before Ben Murphy scored an unconverted try - 12-24.

The final try was scored with the last play of the match and was a set piece agreed by the backs at a lineout.

On winning the lineout Matt Allen fired a cross field kick to John Matthews who raced onto the ball, caught it cleanly and dived over the try line evading a Guernsey tackle.

The ref blew his whistle to end the game & the boys were elated - hugs & high fives all round.

We went back to the club house for presentations with our hosts who were fantastic all weekend - it was a pleasure to play them & stay on the island.

Big selection headaches for the coaching team for this season following that performance!