Horsham show their valour in defeat to leaders London Welsh
Leader London Welsh came away from Horsham with a 12-19 win to continue their perfect start to the season.
This does not however tell the whole story. The winless Green and Whites showed tremendous spirit and fight belying their lowly league position, and denied Welsh a bonus point for the first time this season.
The crowd of 250 was the largest seen at Coolhurst since the promotion playoff against Farnham in 2019, swelled by the massed ranks of Welsh supporters.
Horsham opened the scoring with an Oli Chennell penalty after two minutes. Welsh responded with a Tim Ridler try after too many penalties had been conceded.
The Green and Whites then went down to 14 when Rich Tredgett was yellow carded. Welsh took advantage of the extra man when Paolo Peschisolido crossed the line which was converted by Osian McAvoy to take a 3-12 lead.
This was to be their last score for 40 minutes as Horsham took the game to Welsh and Chennell narrowed the gap with a well-taken penalty.
Welsh have run up large scores in the second half as their opposition have started to tire but Horsham didn’t flag.
On 50 minutes, Chennell scored a long range penalty but a yellow card to Michael Tredgett halted Horsham’s momentum and Jacob Butler soon crossed the line for the visitors which was converted by McAvoy.
Chennell narrowed the gap after 66 minutes with his fourth penalty to secure Horsham a losing bonus point in a brave performance.
Head of rugby Nick Stocker said: “A pleasing performance all round from the boys that took the field. Welsh are a well drilled and organised side with a very large pack but despite this we managed to disrupt their flow.
“Defensively we were outstanding with the new patterns suffocating the Welsh attack.
“Although we are yet to get the first win on the board, the performances have improved weekly.
“Today a standard of performance was set, and if we replicate this, the wins will follow soon.”
Next week Horsham travel to London Cornish who are also waiting for their first league win.