Hove Reds blow Horsham away

Horsham 15 Hove 45

On a blustery day Hove Reds played out a fast and creative match away at Horsham.

The match initially started slowly and resulted in a series of scrums as the players adapted to the conditions. But despite the dominance on the Horsham pack at the scrum, Hove were the quicker to adapt to the condition, competing at the breakdowns well, and started moving the ball quicker and more accurately.

An early opportunity to score from a good line break and offload was put down. But Hove were quickly back in Horshams half and quick ball from Scott into Oli set the fly half free and another offload to Dan saw our fullback score.

The second score quickly followed the first and came after another decent passage of play starting with a line out in the Horsham 22. Horsham won a lineout ball and kicked it into the Hove half that Dan at full back ran back into their 22. The Hove forwards supported and drove forward enabling Oli to take the ball on the run and offload to Raph's supporting run to crash through their last defender and put the ball to ground.

With Hove now at full throttle and demonstrating impressive defensive line speed we chalked up a third score from a great interception on a Horsham pass from Jez at hooker, just past the half way line. A strong run followed, only to stumble at the 5m line before Scott recovered the ball with a superb offload to Ted, who carried it over the line for his inaugural try for the team.

A 4th Try for hove from Oli, who scored following after a strong run from Andrew on the wing deep in the Hove half.

An interlude for injury enabled the boys to catch their breath, and the restart began with a strong run from Harry crashing through several defenders, and the ball ended up with Max in the centres who evaded a number of tackles before offloading mid tackle into Olis hands - a score that was a joy to watch.

After half time, Hove played into the wind and up the slope. Horsham picked up momentum and successfully got balls into the hands of their bigger forwards, and a few missed tackles meant they got on the score board. A phase of play that saw Horsham score quickly again for their 2nd.

Horsham forwards continued to dominate for a period but Hove defended bravely on their try line to hold up a try. This seemingly gave the Hove boys some hope, and we saw some fantastic phase play kicked off from Scott managing to rip the ball from a Horsham forward on our 22, leading to the winger Andrew having a decent run supported by Max who ran it home from the half way line to add another 5 points to Hove scoreboard.

More energy coming from the Hove forwards in the next passage of play with Leo making some good ground, with Max present as ever, and an offload to Harry who crashed through several defenders for a try between the posts.

Horsham were not yet done however and after a Hove short kick that didnt make it to touch meant Horsham had the upper hand running it back to Hove and past them and whilst it was bravely held up, some hands in the ruck meant a penalty conceded on the 5m line and a Horsham crash ball for their next try.

The final Hove try came from Alex after an astounding run from the Hove half way line, to round off a solid victory. The coaches were impressed by everyone's energy, teamplay and willingness to play running rugby in difficult conditions, and was great to see the fruits of the recent training sessions in action on the pitch.