Horsham Under 18 girls travelled to play Pulborough on Sunday in likely to be the last County fixture of the year towards league honours for both teams. Horsham turned up with 19 players with a couple out injured and looking forward to an always difficult and hard fixture, with both teams knowing a lot about each other over the years.
Sophie Roberts captained Horsham and won the toss and choose to have the hill and wind advantage in the first half, setting a lot of good year phases together as well as defending well. A good turnover from the Horsham pack gave attacking ball to their backs. Another good break from Millie Smith then allowed a break up the middle from Kacey Matthews who then rounded the full back to score under the posts. The extras were duly added by Georgia Pearce from the tee.
Pulborough then had much of the play but struggled to get out of their half as Horsham’s defence did well to put pressure on. A couple of excellently executed backs moves from Horsham were snuffed out by the Pulborough defence. Horsham’s defence was caught offside on a couple of occasions which helped relieve some of the pressure.
Horsham’s scrum has been a force to be reckoned with in recent weeks, with Eve Clarke, Ella Earle and Izzy White leading the way in the front row. They were able to turnover a number of scrums which allowed Horsham to get into some attacking areas of the field. This pressure was in the end to much for Pulborough as a strong run from Tegan Williams, barging over the line from short range near the posts. Georgia Pearce again adding the extras for a 14-0.
This latest try gave Pulborough the wake up call they needed, getting into the Horsham half and putting some good phases together before the ball came loose and was dropped on by Earle and cleaned up well by Millie Weeden, allowed Alina Hillicks in her unusual position of 10 to clear the trouble with an excellent kick down field.
That position then lead to Horsham’s third try as a break up the middle but this time from Pearce to score herself. She converted her own try to leave the score at half time at 21-0 to Horsham.
Pulborough now with the wind and hill advantage came out the stronger of the two teams, but Horsham’s defence stood strong with some good tackling from Tiggy Bellinger, Safia Cross and Shay Spice, stopping the Pulborough attack from getting to much closer to the Horsham line.
As the pressure mounted on Horsham, Pulborough’s quick thinking allowed them to get behind the Horsham defence and then from a penalty, they took it quickly to score a try next to the posts. Unfortunately for Pulborough the conversation hit the upright to bring the score to 21-5.
Horsham’s defence and game management then took over the rest of the game. Turnovers from Evie Guy and Safia Cross, strong running from Juliana Paul, Tegan Williams, Graceann Claffey and Macy Lawes and tackling from Sophie Roberts, Trudie Jones and Shay Spice, allowed the half back pairing of Lois Martin and Alina Hillicks to manage the game into the right areas and see out the game for Horsham.
Neil Hobbs, Horsham Head Coach said “This group of players work so incredibly hard to be the best they can, as individuals and ultimately as a team which is exactly what this coaching team has asked of them. We are extremely proud of them all, and it’s a privilege to be involved in this developing and exciting time at Horsham RFC and girls rugby.“
Players of the match for Horsham were Juliana Paul, who’s tireless work around the pitch and powerful runs and set piece put Horsham into good positions all day and Alina Hillicks after her first full game at fly half, put Horsham into the right areas of the field and managed the game well. Horsham’s next game is travelling down to Trojans on the 27th March.