Horsham RFC unlucky to lose at Havant – Chichester beaten at Salisbury

Horsham took their bow at level 5, and in doing so created club history by playing at the highest level in the club's 95 year history. Faced with perfect late summer conditions at a packed Hooks Lane in Havant, the excitement of the new season was mirrored by our hosts who had laid on a Captain's Table lunch and a curtain raiser seeing the 2nd XV play the Navy U23's in front of a sizeable crowd.

With Havant one of the promotion favourites, finishing the league in 2nd last time around, this would be a real test of newly promoted Horsham's credentials. That Havant were clinging on to secure the win in the final throes says a lot about Horsham's spirit having come back from a 22-7 deficit and putting the disappointment of a couple of very odd linesman decisions behind them to gain two valuable points on the road.

The game started somewhat tentatively and with Horsham gaining possession from kick off, the subsequent phases of play were error strewn such that a chip designed to transfer pressure bounced favourably into Havant's fullback moving at speed. With the line broken down the left, Havant's backs supported the break to finish strongly in the corner for a try that went unconverted. From kick off, Horsham regathered the ball and with it a little more composure.

Going through the phases, the Havant defensive line was stretched and when under advantage for a high tackle, Horsham moved the ball to the backs who struck down the right when Joe Blake spotted the mis match and glided through a gap to put Oli Chennell away to score a try that he converted himself. 10 minutes played and Horsham with a slender lead of 5-7.

Havant struck back immediately as an error, a feature that was to plague Horsham all afternoon saw the ball dropped from kick off. With the knock on changed to a penalty as a player in front picked up the ball, Horsham had granted easy access to their 22m and despite defending the drive valiantly for 3 minutes, the Havant 9 finally squeezed through a gap for a converted score - 12-10.

On 22 mins Havant showed their quality with a fine try direct from a first phase attack with Horsham's defence caught out. Again the line break was well supported with a fine finish out wide, and with the Havant kicker having an off day, the try went unconverted leaving the score 19-7. Horsham now had periods of dominance with regular entries into the Havant 22m zone.

However, with the lineout performing intermittently the pressure was not converted to points. In one such passage of play on 27 minutes, scrum ball on the Havant 22m was moved to the backs only for the move to falter with the ball dropped carelessly eventually granting Havant possession on the halfway. With the ball moved from the scrum through several phases, the Horsham defence got caught too narrow and again the Havant backs punished Horsham with a try acrobatically finished in the corner. Horsham players were adamant that the winger had stepped into touch but with the home linesman in attendance, the referee awarded the try which again went unconverted leaving the score 22-7 and Horsham with a mountain to climb.

Horsham rang a few changes with the aim to take the game to Havant. With the Horsham scrum strong, another promising field position outside the Havant 22m saw Horsham's centre pairing take the ball on with Oli Chennell hitting a hard line off his partner Tom Johnson and then return the ball to his skipper who burst through the final tackle to finish under the posts.

Bizarrely this try went unconverted as the the Havant linesman claimed the ball went under the cross bar despite both the referee and Horsham's linesman believing otherwise. With this action, the score had moved to 22-12 which was taken into the halftime break.

With the benefit of the slight breeze in the second half Horsham began well pinning Havant into their own half. A succession of penalties however saw Havant enter the Horsham 22m and with a well executed catch and drive, took the score to 27-12 and with it breathing space for Havant.

Horsham however entered their best period of the game where errors reduced, the lineout started to become more accurate and the kicking game more effective. With Havant ceding territory, a driven maul saw Havant penalised and when under advantage, newly signed prop Joe Woods burrowed his way over for a try to the left of the posts.

With an easy conversion, the score moved to 27-19 with a quarter to play. On one of Havant's few attacks in the last 20 minutes, a penalty conceded in the tackle was kicked to push the score out to 30-19 and with it, clear indication that Havant had been rattled.

Horsham continued to work hard. With fresh legs brought on in the unforgiving heat, on 72 minutes, with the ball moved at pace, the Horsham backs demonstrated their own firepower by taking full advantage of the narrowed Havant defence. With Joe Blake now running amok, new signing Ryu Fung moved the ball into space and delivered the try scoring pass to Joe Blake to finish well. With the try converted, Horsham had secured their bonus point and were within a score of taking all 5. 73 minutes played and the score 30-26.

Horsham continued to press and with the ball turned over on the Horsham 10m, Tom Johnson kicked beautifully to secure an excellent 50-22m and with it the opportunity to take the match. However the lineout failed and with it, seemingly the opportunity to win. There was still time for more late drama as Havant were penalised for holding on in the act of running down the clock.

With Havant's backs reduced due to an earlier yellow card, the team decided to take the scrum to try to force a try. Unfortunately, Horsham's earlier inaccuracy returned and a knock on at the base saw the referee blow for time and with it the chance for a memorable debut in the league.

Head of Rugby Nick Stocker had mixed emotions. "I am very pleased with the 2 points secured away at Havant. This is possibly one of the toughest places to visit in the league and given that all away teams lost in the league this weekend, the value of these points cannot be understated. Indeed, there will not be many teams that come to Havant and secure points. That said, it is similarly frustrating that fine margins conspired to see the win slip through our grasp.

"For example the missed conversion earlier in the game would have altered the decision to take the scrum at the death and how the linesman thought otherwise is puzzling. I hope he gets a chance to review the video footage because it could not be clearer that the ball went over the bar. Ultimately however, this simply demonstrates how competitive this league is and that error counts will have a big impact in the outcome.

£We made too many basic errors today and on another day we would have converted several of the opportunities that were created and with it a potentially different outcome. This experience coupled with the fact that we have significant firepower still to return to the squad having been unavailable for one reason or another, will hold us in good stead.

"We will learn the lessons quickly with the aim to push for a win as early as possible in this campaign. We have just that opportunity next week with another very stern test in our first home fixture against London Welsh. It promises to be a mouth watering occasion that the whole club is looking forward to.”

Salisbury 19 Chichester 17

Regional 2 South Central

by Simon Tanner

Chichester began the new league season with a defeat against new opposition.

After a summer, that saw a number of departures, there was a mix of the old, including Joe Shopland and Ben Polhill, the latter starting his 28th season in the 1st XV, and a number of recent colts and new signings, with Joe Hunter, Joel Andrews, Ethan Etherington and Huw Binfield making their 1st XV debuts.

With the sun shining, and temperature in the high 20s, it was Blues who kicked off on the lush Castle Road pitch. With changes to the tackle height rules over the closed season both teams started tentatively trying to avoid an early card or sending-off.

Play was exclusively in their own half, but Chichester absorbed the hosts’ early pressure – but were unable to run the ball clear. On 15 minutes Blues were penalised for holding on to the ball, allowing Salisbury a kick for goal, 3-0.

From the restart Salisbury failed to deal with the ball and a Chichester charge-down was chased by Owen Tucker who won the foot race to touch down, conversion missed, 3-5.

Play ebbed and flowed for the next 20 minutes with neither team able to find a defence-beating pass for their backs to exploit. Both sets of forwards had chances but were unable to ground the ball once over the whitewash.

In the last six minutes of the half Chichester lost two players to yellow cards and conceded three penalties within kicking range, meaning they trailed 12-5 at the interval.

The second half started badly when an interception on halfway allowed Salisbury to run in a try under the posts, converted for 19-5 after 42 minutes.

Chichester upped the tempo and reduced the deficit. A spilled ball was hacked forward by Rhys Thompson and debutant Joel Andrews outstripped the scrambling defence to kick it on and arrive first at the try line to touch it down. Conversion missed, 19-10.

From the restart an infringement reduced Salisbury to 14 players but Chichester were unable to take advantage of superior numbers.

Now it was the turn of the hosts to defend. The Blues lineout was working well with Josh Cameron finding the jumper with all but one throw and the pack more than holding its own.

But still neither set of backs put together a set defence-splitting passes.

With a couple of minutes left Chichester piled on the pressure.

They moved the ball forward and a defensive infringement gave them a penalty five metres out. The forwards inched the ball forward and sideways before Richard Ives dived over to score. With the final kick of the game Ollie Horne stroked the ball through the uprights for two points.

A losing bonus point was Chichester’s – not a great spectacle but some positives. MoMh was Josh Cameron.

On Saturday, Chichester welcome London Irish to Oaklands Park. All support welcome (3pm).