Canterbury duly secured the points which guaranteed their position as league champions for Counties 1 Kent and promotion. Their impressive defence allowed them to take advantage of too many home errors and clinical finishing duly reaped reward.
Nonetheless this was a fine home team performance and Heathfield are one of the few sides to have denied Canterbury a try bonus point in a game this season.
A little overnight rain resulted in a firm surface just taking a stud and with no noticeable wind conditions were excellent. Canterbury played down the slight slope initially.
As suggested by the pre-match warmup routines, Canterbury soon showed that they are a well-drilled team. They were winning some of the early collisions and a penalty gave them a good attacking position on the left hand side. An efficient lineout was then driven over for the opening try.
Heathfield were contesting well with Tom Tingley making the first of many impactful carries. However they were making too many basic mistakes and the visitors duly took advantage. Good ball from a turnover in their own half was run back with their inside centre taking a lovely line which was only just contained by the cover defence at the cost of a penalty to increase the score (0-10).
At the end of the first quarter a faulty home lineout was gratefully exploited by the visitors and efficient handling gave them a simple try on the left hand side. (0-17)
On two occasions Toby Simpson ran back kicks along his right wing and both times the bounce of the ball and the visitors’ defence only just denied him a deserved try on his 100th appearance for Heathfield. Charlie Hannan also made some useful incursions from fullback.
Towards the end of the half Heathfield had a period of sustained pressure on the visitors’ try line but eventually a turnover enabled the visitors to escape and they charged back down to the other end. In the last minutes of the half some desperate defence in the corner just denied Canterbury a try albeit at the cost of a yellow card for Simpson for some malpractice at the breakdown a couple of yards out.
The set piece was quite even although the Canterbury lineout was particularly efficient helped by a couple of Heathfield wobbles. After some early penalties against Heathfield that count was almost even by half time.
Canterbury started the second half strongly. They were first held up in the top right hand corner under the balcony but then almost immediately they moved the ball wide left for a good finish in that corner, well converted. (0-24).
Heathfield probably had the better of the rest of the game as Canterbury may have felt that they had the game won and their defence generally just about coped with Heathfield’s efforts.
Nonetheless Heathfield started to build some persistent pressure into the bottom right hand corner assisted by an increasing penalty count against the visitors. Eventually quick ruck ball was taken on by Ben Irwin only to be tackled by a defender a couple of yards offside – he still managed to muscle his way over the try line and is confident that he touched down. However this was in a heap of bodies and the referee quite rightly called held up as he could not see the grounding.
Continuing Heathfield pressure meant that most of the game was in the visitors’ half. In the second half the penalty count was 2-8 against the visitors so it was no surprise when one of their front row was now binned. This was a pleasant change from some recent Heathfield penalty failings.
In the last few minutes Canterbury made their last visit to the home half and were rewarded with a penalty. Interestingly they chose to take three points rather than go for a bonus point try.
This just spurred Heathfield to even greater efforts in the last play of the match and once they had regained possession from the restart a score always looked likely. After several phases Irwin was able to stroll over under the posts for a much-deserved try. He had been a creative and competitive force at fly half in both attack and defence.
However he was at least matched by the Canterbury fly half Owain Collins whose impressive overall control of affairs was acknowledged by both sides.
Unusually both coaches particularly praised their front rows – a phase in which neither side had dominance. Early on Canterbury switched their front row so that hooker George Hayter was mostly opposed by a very experienced old campaigner with what looked like about a four stone advantage. Hayter, George Walter and Olly Smith all emerged with much credit on the day not just for their efforts in the tight.
Otherwise skipper Gus Taylor was one of the standout players on a day when the whole squad stood up against the dominant league champions.
After a week’s rest Heathfield complete their league season with a visit to near-neighbours Cranbrook (5 Apr 3.00)