Horsham lose a winnable game

Horsham Lions came up short against an experienced and forward dominated Bognor side in a league clash that provided a number of questionable decisions by the referee losing 10 - 7. Out of the two sides the Lions were once again the side trying to playing the more expansive style despite the pitch and weather condition in an effort to stick to their style yet came undone by being dragged into a forward dominated game by an experienced outfit.

Horsham were to go three points behind early on after conceding a penalty at a maul. The Lions replied immediately but failed to convert their own penalty kick at goal.

In the second half Horsham came out of the starting blocks the faster of the two teams with a fantastic phase of play that lead to Kyle Fuller showing his pace and footwork to score a wonderful long range try to help Horsham take the lead, with Jake Gates landing the conversion from the touch line.

After this score Bognor showed admirable tactical awareness to pin Horsham back in their 22 and concede a line-out near their try line. But the Lions showed fantastic defensive unity to repel attack after attack by Bognor’s forwards. After a show of impressive defensive work Horsham demonstrated their counter attacking skill when Bognor kicked loosely to the Lions back three who brought the ball back with interest and after an number of impressive drives by the forwards the ball was shipped out wide to Dan Crook who made a powerful burst through the Bognor back line to get within five metres of the try line only to be stopped. After this the ball was passed to Iain Fisher who committed the defence and passed to Mike Penfold who had a clear run to the try line to score but the referee blew up for a debatable forward pass. After the resulting scrum Bognor cleared their lines only for Horsham to concede yet more possession to them after a botched attempt to get rid of the ball in their 22. This let Bognor have a line out in which they used their main (and only effective) weapon, their driving maul in which Horsham were powerless to repel which lead to the final score of the game which gave Bognor the win.

Horsham Lions next match is against East Grinstead 3’s on the 17th January.