Colts have encouraging start

With U17’s and U18’s combining to form the Colts it is always difficult to assess how the boys will gel together. The game was played over 4 periods with all 28 boys getting at least 2 periods.

Horsham spilled the kick off and hardly had the ball for the first 5 minutes but as soon as they gained line out possession on the Bognor 22 the spun it wide with fly half Cameron Allan looping round and outpacing the wing to score in the corner. The conversion was missed (more of that later).

2 further tries followed in the first period through wings Declan Nwachukwu and Jerome Downey emphasising the pace in the Horsham backs. The strength in depth in this area was clear for all to see with the first 2 tries in the second period being scored by wing Ben Birch who had replaced Nwachukwu.

Horsham went onto score 11 tries in the match, all of them through the backs. However, this wouldn’t have been possible without the power and recycling abilities of the forwards who, after a shaky start, quickly gained parity with the powerful Bognor pack and then began to dominate with Kyle Fairs, Liam Brady, Robin Holt, Callum Murphy, Jake Plane, Aiden Plumpton and Dan Riley to the fore. The competition at hooker is going to be fierce with James York, David Fennelly and Oli Budd all performing excellently as did Jordan Chapman, Dan Macklin and Ben Higgs who kept the front 5 dominance up from the second period. It’s old adage but still true – forwards win matches, the backs just decide by how much!

The tries were scored by Declan Nwachukwu (3 – one of which was an outstanding kick-off return from his own 22), Cameron Allan (2), Jerry Downey (2), Ben Birch (2), centre Tom Clayton and full back Liam McGivern. McGivern’s try was arguably the pick of the bunch. Dan Riley took a line out on half way and fed scrum half Josh Steggles of the top, centre Tom Clayton the ran a cracking line off fly half Cam Allan and cut through the Bognor defence to the 22. He then found Nwachukwu outside him who passed on the his fellow wing Birch (coming over from the right). He then offloaded to full back McGivern who scored in the corner. A stunning try of the training ground which drew appreciative applause from all who were watching.

Other highlights were Will Thomas’s tackle at full back when faced with a 4 on 1 overlap which snuffed out Bognor’s best scoring chance and prop Jordan Chapman’s handling and distribution when popping up in the backs.

It was a good start to the season but there are still lots of things to work, particularly at the breakdown where Horsham need to be more clinical and dynamic. There is also the aforementioned goal kicking as Horsham only kicked 2 out of 11 (1 from Cam Allan and another from Matt Blake) – this could really hurt the Colts in the challenges ahead so extra practice is needed before training on Thursday boys!

Man of the Match – Cameron Allan