Creepy Crawley Squished

Following the biblical weather faced by Horsham 3rd team vs Crawley 3rds on Saturday, a game that featured 2 Horsham U15 coaches, and witnessed by a 3rd, Sunday morning broke fine and sunny. Horsham under 15s turned up in deepest Crawley to an empty rugby club for a Development Squad game. Expecting to be fighting for pitch space and changing rooms a certain coach (or specifically his better half) found no queues for coffee and bacon sandwiches (thanks Abi!)

The boys were a little flat in the warm up, mostly due to the fact the opposition where nowhere to be seen! Due to coach Guy re-aquatinting himself with his former team mates (accusations of him being a 'splitter' being a little harsh as he has shown his commitment to the Green Army for several years) coach Fubes tried to talk the lads up. But there is only one man for the job. Mr Young did his thing and the team arrived pitch side ready to go.

From the kick off it was evident Horsham would be too much for Crawley to handle. Will Hutt playing at 10 opened the scoring with a mazy run through the Crawley defence, for Josh "pretty boy" Hedger, loaned to the backs for the day, to convert. 0-7. Mixed with a score for Crawley, Max "Wrecking Ball" Lewis, despite playing out of position at hooker (and moaning about it!) proceeded to score 4 tries in the first half, bookended by a second try from Will Hutt. In the midst Eaun, our Scottish Exocet, put in a huge tackle on Crawley's big centre, which resulted in Euan spreading his nose across his face (fierce as a lion but obviously not listening on tackle technique day!) and putting the first aid kit, and Mrs Denton, under pressure with the resulting blood spillage and pressing forwards sub Harrison White into action in the backs (unexpectedly as he hadn't done his hair for the position)

Second half Horsham had a good phase of play finished with a try by Josh Uden, following a powerful run, breaking several tackles.

Tiring slightly and perhaps thinking the job done Horsham came off the gas, not committing fully at the breakdowns, the Crawley forwards put numbers into rucks and started to win ball. This allowed Crawley a glimmer of hope which was snatched by their dangerous centres and so Crawley scored the game's next 2 tries.

With a wake up call Horsham responded. Now back at the manly position of flanker Harrison stole a pass meant for the centres and powered over the line with 3 Crawley players on his back. This was followed soon after by Josh Hedger, running hard and straight to score and finally the other Josh (Brand), temporarily returned to his old position of winger, storming up the left wing, from his own 22, to score.

While the final score of 21-60 showed the gulf between the teams Crawley, to their credit, never gave up. As our forwards became complacent at the breakdowns, Crawley upped their game arriving at rucks in numbers and aggressively. Horsham responded and the final 3 tries took the wind out of our hosts.

Also thank you for the support of the lads who rushed over from training and managed to get a few minutes on the pitch as we started to tire.

Special mention to Damien Walker-Smith on his return to the team, welcome back. Dan Denton for some fantastic clear outs at the ruck. Ethan Skerry for his efforts in a completely new position, great effort. Will Hutt also playing in a new position, bringing his kicking game to the position and finally Josh Brand, Man of the Match, who terrorised Crawley for 60 minutes, mostly playing openside. Don't listen to Guy & Gus, stay with myself and Tony in the forwards. If nothing else, you're not pretty enough to be in the backs!

1. AUSTIN Henry
2. BRAND Josh
3. DENTON Daniel
4. HEDGER Joshua
5. HUTT Will
6. JONES Lewis
7. LEWIS Max
8. MacDONALD Euan
9. McHARDY Luka
10. PARR-RAPLEY Ethan
11. SAKAKINI Chae
12. SKERRY Ethan
13. SUTLIEFF Finley
14. UDEN Josh
15. WEBSTER Henry
16. WALKER-SMITH Damien
17. WHITE Harrison