Horsham show resilience to overturn 14 point deficit in bitter conditions

Horsham consolidated their hold on fourth position in London 2 South East with a victory at Coolhurst over Heathfield & Waldron in a dramatic turnaround, with their third successive win and in the process completing the double over their Sussex rivals. This was the twelfth league win of the season for the Green and Whites which is already their most successful return since being promoted three years ago.

Horsham had some good early pressure but this was wasted by a tendency to throw a miracle pass which went astray. Playing into the teeth of a biting, bitter wind in the first-half the Green and Whites then found themselves conceding a succession of penalties as Heathfield & Waldron gradually accumulated a nine point lead after three successful kicks at goal despite an injury to their prop. When the visitors scored a try after the ball appeared to have been knocked-on they were building a lead that appeared to be unassailable, and the risk from the Horsham point of view was that the players would be so cold they would be unable to mount a fight back when the conditions would be in their favour in the second-half. These would however be the last points Heathfield & Waldron would score as Horsham went on to score twenty-two points without reply. The Green and Whites then secured themselves a lifeline on the stroke of half-time with a try for Jake Lowe in support of some great work by Rob Grant. Joe Wilde converted as Horsham went into the break 7-14 down.

Horsham upped the intensity from the start of the second-half. Following five minutes of pressure by the hosts, Vince Everitt ran a hard line to score under the posts which was converted by Wilde to level the scores. Wilde added a further penalty, and then on 66 minutes following hard carries by Johnny Ordidge and Jonny Whiting, and good support from Lowe, Horsham sealed the win with a good finish from Wilde.

Horsham head coach Nick Stocker praised the resilience of his side for overturning the deficit.

“We started slowly against the wind and the cold seemed to numb the brains. Whilst we showed more threat in attack in the early phases, we threw too many offloads which allowed Heathfield field position from which to begin to assert themselves.

As such, we were guilty of conceding too many penalties in our half which their kicker converted excellently building a good lead. This was further exacerbated by conceding a try when the ref missed a knock on in the immediate build up leaving us 14-0 down.

The response from that was positive however and running with more purpose and hunger we scored a great try with the last play before half time to set up the second half nicely.

Playing with the wind, we were more assertive and carried with more purpose with the likes of Vince Everitt and Jake Lowe prominent. This allowed us to set better targets and with quick ball stretch the defence to score two more quality tries.

All in all, we are pleased to secure another win against a solid team in tricky conditions coming from a losing position. This shows the resilience of the young guys which can be built upon. It was a pity we missed the opportunity to get the bonus point try.

There were a number of good performances from the likes of Vince Everitt who was hugely physical both in attack and defence and taking his try very well, Jake Lowe who tackled excellently and made several telling contributions in his carrying to go with his try and line out throwing, Iain Fisher for the work rate in the dark arts of slowing ball down and turning over maul ball and Ryan Maguire and Jonny Whiting who grew into the game as it wore on.

However, with a number of backs playing well and kicking well to keep the pressure up, on a day that wingers would dread, my man of the match was Rob Grant who kept his concentration, did the basics very well and with his running stretched the defence considerably resulting in setting up the first try. All this after taking an early dip in the large body of water along the touch line in freezing conditions which would have definitely lowered his core temperature!”

The Green and Whites travel to face promotion hopefuls Hove on Saturday.