The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (HEG: 22, Hove 24)
A beautiful autumn day, saw HEG play a new look Hove - who have had the advantage of taking 7 Shoreham players on the books at the beginning of the season. Would this be a tight game like our last encounter?
HEG kicked off the first half, with Hove looking dangerous in attack at the start, but a penalty for killing the ball saw us with a line out in the Hove half. Scott had a kick though charged down, but Charlie Clarke did an excellent job of collecting it and made ground almost to the 22.
Another penalty at the break down for HEG, but the ball was over thrown with Hove kicking through - which needed Clarkies deft boot to put it into touch.
Then it was Hove’s turn to over-throw and Andreas tidied up the ball, the turn over saw us break out and push Hove back into their half. Hove then conceded a penalty on the 5 meter line and Macram blasted over for the score.
Callum Price’s conversion looked a dead cert, until it curled away and hit the upright, bouncing the wrong side of the post.
Ollie Kenward took the restart on our 22 and caught in the 5 meter channel, he ran “down the window sill” all the way to Hove’s 22 before being hauled down.
Moments later, the ball went wide and Scott Saunders went over for a try, in the opposite corner. Ben Bovey’s conversion had the direction, but not the legs to carry it.
Hove then had some good possession, but Scott kicked over the top reliving the pressure, hacked on twice and looked for all world - like scoring, when his footballing skills let him down and the third kick went over the dead ball line.
There was just enough time for Hove to score under the posts, a missed tackle and 10 -7 to HEG.
Hove started the second half strongly and they were denied a try as their winger put his foot in touch. Despite resolute Horsham defence on our 5 meter line, on the forth scrum their centre went over the whitewash and conversion put them ahead for the first time in the game.
The referee then took exception to the Hove linesman’s advice on the laws of the game and we ended up with a new touch judge.
Horsham replied with an excellent solo try from Scott, who jinked his way in from the half way line following a lineout, but the conversion was wide. 15 – 14.
The game looked done, when Scott scored his third and Callum converted.
Despite lots of possession, we could not add to the score, this coach wasn’t really worried when Hove scored and converted what looked to be a consolation try when the ball took and awkward bounce and their prop went in under the shadow of the posts.
However, the next last passage of play proved to be our undoing. From a lineout, we were penalised for not straight, Hove opt for a scrum and we were caught offside from the resulting ruck. A tap and go from Hove and we are pinged for off our feet, another tap and we fail to let the player go 10 yards, another penalty and that was what cost us the game.
Our lineout, scrummaging and rucking was excellent, a really good team effort.
But we really need to keep our discipline and find a way to nail the door shut, on tight games.
GREEN ARMY!!
Martin Day