Hove Hurricanes U14s v Haywards Heath

A big league derby and a superb 19–3 win for Hove.

Before kick off, we held a minute’s silence to honour the U14s’ biggest supporter, Dele. Isaac and the boys did him, and all of us, incredibly proud today.

Having not trained for a month, there was some natural anxiety about whether the boys could step up for such a big occasion. Any doubts were quickly put to bed.

From the opening whistle, Hurricanes pinned Haywards Heath in their own half for the first ten minutes and were rewarded with two early tries. Heath, with a bigger pack, repeatedly tried to pick and go or hit short crash balls, but were met time and again by outstanding defence. Jimmy, Beau, Jack, Ned, Ruben, Johnny and Adem formed an impenetrable wall.

The defensive moment of the game came from Precious, who tracked one of Heath’s biggest runners across the pitch and delivered a huge tackle. Not finished there, he bounced straight back up, cleared out two arriving players and won the ball back. A fully deserved Man of the Match.

In attack, we showed real variety. Strong carries through the middle, clever use of pods, exploiting the short side, moving the ball wide and mixing in kick and chase (with our very own Henry Pollock aka Beau narrowly missing a try). Heath ran hard at us but struggled to find answers.

In the second half, the wind was in Heath’s favour and their kicking game kept us pinned back for a period. They kicked to the corner and attempted driving mauls twice, both of which were pushed back and dismantled.

Eventually we broke free, and after a number of strong phases involving much of the team, Seb, Jimmy, Jack, Isaac and Josh combined to put us over for a final try.

A really tough, physical day but everyone on the team showed up and brought out the best in themselves. Well done lads.