Mid Sussex Times

Heath Hawks beat ‘Bourne to take Colts Championsh­ip

- Report contribute­d

A man-of-the-match performanc­e from Bobby Collins inspired Heath Hawks to a 22-5 win over Eastbourne Colts to secure the Sussex U18 Championsh­ip 2020.

With everything that’s currently going on in the world, the importance of this crucial league decider against Eastbourne was put firmly into perspectiv­e.

However, with the Hawks pitch at Whitemans Green being underwater and unplayable, Heath had to sacrifice home advantage and play this all-important game away at Eastbourne RFC.

It was a dry day and, other than a strong wind that would make line out throwing difficult, the conditions were ideal for free flowing rugby on an Eastbourne pitch in excellent shape.

With both teams currently unbeaten in the league, this game was always going to be a close encounter, and so it proved.

Heath kicked off up a slight hill and into a diagonal cross wind that was likely to favour Eastbourne in the first half.

The first period of the half was a tight affair with Heath just edging the territory and possession, but with Eastbourne looking more threatenin­g on the break and in open play.

Eastbourne missed an early penalty from about 30 metres out with the wind taking the ball past the far post.

Whilst Eastbourne were coping fairly comfortabl­y with Heath’s back play, Heath’s fringe runners were starting to make in-roads into the Eastbourne defence around the rucks and mauls, with Heath no.8, Collins, prominent.

Eventually, with about 20 minutes played, Lewis Goodall, the Heath prop, was able to show good speed off the mark to beat a couple of players and sprint over from about 20 metres for the first score of the game.

The difficult conversion from out wide and into a strong cross wind was missed leaving the score at 5-0 to Heath.

This was how the half ended with few further scoring chances for either side.

Seven changes were made at the break, to give the whole squad equal game time.

They produced an immediate result with replacemen­t forward, James Watson, bursting through two or three tackles to score a try five minutes after the restart.

Will Goodwin was successful with the conversion to provide Heath with a reassuring 12-0 lead in such a tight contest.

However, for the remainder of the second half, Heath found themselves defending their own line with wave after wave of Eastbourne attacks being resisted.

The pressure ultimately told with a yellow card for Heath with about 20 minutes of the second half played.

A minute or two later, the speedy Eastbourne full back was able to outflank a couple of Heath players wide on the right to score a well-executed try in the corner.

With the wind, and from that distance, the conversion was always going to be a virtual impossibil­ity and so it proved, leaving the score at 12-5 to Heath with just over ten minutes remaining.

Despite a poor kick off, Heath eventually found themselves in slightly unfamiliar territory, just outside the Eastbourne 22, where they won a penalty.

Goodwin calmly slotted the three pointer and provided Heath with a two score lead at 15-5 with just over five minutes left to play.

To Eastbourne’s credit, they didn’t give up and once again pushed Heath back into their own half.

However, in their desire for an early score, they sent out a wide speculativ­e pass, which Will Goodwin cleverly intercepte­d and then sprinted three quarters of the pitch to score under the Eastbourne posts.

Goodwin’s conversion was good and at 22-5 a Heath win looked secure.

Indeed, following the restart, Heath collected and after one or two rucks cleared the ball into touch to take the final whistle, the game and the Colts Championsh­ip title.

This was a quite superb defensive display by the Hawks, with every single squad member putting in a magnificen­t shift.

A good example of the skill on show was when Heath winger, Tom Banks, was faced with a one-on-one tackle on the opposition winger in acres of space.

It looked like the Eastbourne player would be able to get around on the outside, but Tom hung on and ultimately put his man down with the cavalry then arriving to clear the danger.

There were some particular­ly conspicuou­s driving displays from a number of the Heath forwards, including captain Ellis Dubois who led from the front for the whole game, and James Watson.

However, the Heath Hawks man-of-the-match went to the no.8, Collins, for the sheer volume of carries and the number of Eastbourne tackles that he broke.

This squad has won the national cup at the Woolacombe U15s tournament in 2018, the second division U16 title in 2019 and now the Colts Championsh­ip title in 2020, with only three U18s in the squad.

With an exciting crop of current U16s becoming Colts next year and joining the remaining significan­t squad of nearly thirty U17s, there is every reason to be optimistic about targeting the Colts Premiershi­p title in 2021.

There were also excellent performanc­es from the two U18s in the squad, Evan Herbert and Henry Richards, in what was their final league game in junior rugby before progressin­g through to the seniors at Heath.

 ??  ?? Heath Hawks secured the Colts Championsh­ip against Eastbourne on Sunday
Heath Hawks secured the Colts Championsh­ip against Eastbourne on Sunday

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