County runners-up

This was our first Sussex Finals day with four teams playing each other for the title. First up were Brighton and the Horsham Lions started strongly with their defence stopping any Brighton attacks abruptly. Once the ball was turned over the ball was passed down the line to Tom Sanders who sprinted down the line and scored in the corner. One further score followed that half and although Horsham had a number of chances in the second half they could not add any further scores to the two tries in the first half.

Next up were host team Crowborough and Horsham played some more open rugby which led to three early scores. In the second half their defence wasn’t as tight, which let Crowborough over the line for some late scores, but enough work was done early on for Horsham to win 6-3.

So it came down to the final match against Chichester, the other unbeaten team, in what was likely to be a battle of defence. Chichester started the stronger and Horsham were in the unfamiliar position of being on the back foot. Chichester applied plenty of early pressure and managed to score twice before half-time. Horsham battled well in the second half showing great resilience and were unlucky not to score themselves but Chichester held out to become under-9 Sussex champions for 2015. Horsham can proudly call themselves the second best team in Sussex at this age group.

The Horsham Lions team was Harry Bostock, Oliver Colombo, Nathan Coward, Sam Gordon, Liam Hughes, James ‘Dark’ Knight, Morgan Purnell, Sam Thurston and Tom Sanders.