It was like a cup final and a record number for a Horsham rugby junior game turned up in the sunshine to watch Horsham U16 in the final league game against local rivals Pulborough for the third spot – and last game before our boys become Colts! Whether it was 1,895 or a couple of hundred didn’t really matter as the majority of the spectators were young girls. That didn’t put off any of the boys, yet did confuse the dads a little and made the mums scream even higher, especially the full-back’s!

Pulborough took an early seven points lead and Jordan Bell who had a very good game, got us back to 5-7 after Jake Donovan’s kick to the corner. Yet that didn’t last as a very vocal Pulborough increased their lead to 5-12, while we played like an oh so quiet snooker team.

That did change in the second half starting with our very own videographer Gavin Punter and his Trust, Courage, Belief chant, got the spectators with him and those three magic words were roaring round the Field of Dreams. Who said Delia Smith? No-one, it was spectacular!
Our two glass fly-half’s swapped place and then it all happened and we witnessed the try of the season!

Allen Senior Senior noticed all the space in Pulborough’s 22 and Allen Junior kicked the ball there, Vince Everett came running all the way from the U15’s, kicked the ball into the try area where a very brave Lewis Wilson came diving for the corner at the exact right time – as if his mother had stood there shouting just like in the early years. A very magic moment and the screaming were as high as Euro 92.

10-12, game on and all season a very fit Green Army have been able to run away it, yet Pulborough turned out to be as fit! And then there was the opportunity with the penalty. Well, what can you expect of teenage boys in these exam times – listen to advice from us……?

Yes, it was disappointing to lose this derby, but what a bloody brilliant season we have had and we still finished in the top half of League 1! Thank you very much to Coach Jones, Coach Wright, Coach Lewis, Coach Evans, Coach Robison, not Robinson, Dr. Matthews, Mrs Murphy and all the other screaming mums, Sponsors and Master Chefs, Jeremy ‘Malcolm McLaren’ Allen, good old Camera Man and other dads that I have listened to and learned rugby from so Harrison Gould’s dad once called me a Rugby Nut – the biggest compliment and the sign of true integration to the land of fish & chips. But the biggest thank you must go to the boys of the Green Army who made it all happen!