Yellow card hurts Lions

Lions showed in their first game in Sussex 1 that they could live with the pace and intensity of the leagues standard but still have a number of things to learn quickly if they are to be successful at this new level.

Lions started the match with pace and power from the kick off with flanker Iain Fisher recovering the ball, and the Horsham forwards punching the ball into the Hove 22 with a number of dominant runs with Fisher driving his way over for the score from short range. O’Gorman converted from out wide to put the Lions in the lead 7-0. Hove hit back through their pacey outside backs with their 13 going through for a try with the conversion missing with the scores moving to 7-5. Horsham response produced a fine display of forward drives and backs runs with the rucking intensity being a key part of their play with the play ending in a penalty goal taking the score to 10-5. Yet again Hove hit back with an unconverted try and a penalty coming from good running lines and Horsham’s mistakes. Horsham gathered themselves and replied through outside centre James Whiting running a great line to cut open the Hove defence to score under the post, with the try being converted to put the Lions in the lead 17-13 going in at half time.

At the break Hove came out of the blocks first with quick attacks that cut through the Horsham defence to score two quick tries and also causing Horsham to infringe and concede a penalty which Hove kicked over to push the lead to 17-28. With their back to the wall Horsham came out fighting with winger Jerry Downey going over for the first of his two tries with O’Gorman converting and to put Horsham closer to the Hove lead with the scores now being 24-28. More was to come from the Horsham Lions with a show of great support play and inter play between players being a real weapon in the phase with hooker Rob Grantham-Hill running in the try to take the lead 29-28 with the conversion missing. This in turn forced Hove to produce response with them scoring a try to take the lead back. Finding themselves on the back foot and injuries taking their toll Horsham’s structured play that had been effect so far in the match started to go missing, also discipline start to put Horsham on the back foot quickly with replacement prop Dan Cass being shown yellow for foul play at the maul. The sending off was the turning with Hove now full of confidence put the game to bed through good wide play and running by their influential outside centre stamping his mark on the game with two tries to take the lead out of the reach of Horsham. With the final minute of the game Hove kicked over a penalty goal to push the lead to 49-29. With the final play of the game Horsham showed the structure and the skill that had them lead the game early on with winger Downey going over in the corner for the final score of the game with O’Gorman converting from wide out.

Horsham Lion Team Manager Andy Layzell was pleased with the display, “I’m proud of the guys. They showed me that we can survive in this league and we are capable of causing trouble for teams in this league. Our pack was dominant which is always pleasing, and showed good control but we need to rein in the stupid penalties. The yellow card was the turning point as up till that moment we were in control and had a good pattern of play that was causing Hove a number of problems.”

The Lions next game is a friendly against local rivals Holbrook on the 19th September, and their next league game, Lewes on the 26th September.