Derby day dismay for the Green and Whites
Horsham went down to their second successive league loss on Saturday, falling 12-38 to Sussex rivals Chichester at Coolhurst.
Chi’s Tom Blewitt missed a penalty attempt but, on 15 minutes, Rhys Thompson ran through a gap in the Horsham defence and spread the ball wide to Eddie Jenkinson to score.
Michael Tredgett then made a surging run before the ball was moved on to Oli Chennell to score, converting his own try, as the Green and Whites took a 7-5 lead.
Chichester responded with a try from Josh Brown, but Blewitt missed his third successive kick at goal.
The remainder of the half was fairly even, but when Horsham attacked they were met by a solid Chi defence until shortly before the break the visitors won a penalty and kicked to the corner.
Having secured the ball a couple of phases later Rich Ives drove over to score, converted by Blewitt.
Chichester started the second half strongly and sliced through the midfield for Jenkinson to score.
Jenkinson completed his hat-trick on 56 minutes and with both tries converted by Blewitt the game was already beyond Horsham at 7-31.
The Green and Whites increased their tempo before the ball was spun wide for Austin Emens to score to narrow the deficit to 12-31.
Chi incurred a yellow card for incurring too many penalties but Horsham were unable to turn this pressure into points, and to put a gloss on proceedings Chichester ran through a gap in the defence for Ross Miller to score.
Head of rugby Nick Stocker said: “A disappointing result but signs or greater cohesion and energy compared to last week’s performance.
“The 10 minutes either side of half time were critical and with our set piece malfunctioning, and an increasing penalty count, we could never establish enough territory and pressure to score. In the last 15 when we upped the pace we began to look more dangerous.
“With players performing well in our second team who registered a big win over Sussex 1 team Burgess Hill, and injured players nearing fitness, the next few weeks will prove interesting on the selection front with an expected upturn in results to follow.
“Next week we travel to Battersea Ironsides in a first league encounter between the sides.”