Rugby: Horsham and Chichester beaten again – but there are many positives

Horsham 36 London Welsh 42

Regional 1 South Central

by Glen Jones

Horsham fell just short again after an heroic fightback in blistering temperatures.

They say that the deserts of the World are inhospitable places where daytime temperatures can climb to over 100 degrees, which strangely enough probably best described Horsham's pitch.

Horsham played host to London Welsh in what was the first home league fixture of the new season in Regional 1 South Central and on what was the hottest day of the year.

An eagerly anticipated fixture for any club, London Welsh arrived as the established team in this League and on their own well documented journey back to the top of English rugby. With London Welsh smarting from a loss the weekend before Horsham knew it would be a tough afternoon being the newbies in the League, playing at their highest level to date.

It was Welsh that appeared to cope with the conditions and atmosphere the best at the start as on minutes '5,'9,'13 and '16 the tries started to go over in quick succession.

Some sublime running lines from the men in red caught Horsham's defence a little out of sorts, if not for some wayward kicking off the tee, London Welsh might have built an impossible lead. However Horsham were not going to roll over that easily as in minute '25 they took their first score, a try by Captain Tom Johnson converted by the ever reliable Oli Chennell.

A quick response by Welsh saw them cross the line for a fifth time in the half but it was evident the tide was starting to turn in Horsham's favour as London Welsh opted for a penalty kick to see out the first half and secure them a 7-34 lead going into the break.

Horsham lost one of their players just before the half time whistle as lock Taylor Morris got the call that his Partner had gone into labour. No news as yet but we wish them both well.

Without doubt this game would best be described using that good old cliche "a game of two halves" as the second half absolutely belonged to Horsham. It was Horsham that struck first with a solid gallop over the line from the warhorse that is Jack Osgood.

Unfortunately the errors that plagued the men in green in the first 20 minutes of the game crept back as London Welsh struck back with their sixth try of the game. With bodies on both sides now wilting in the searing temperatures it was Horsham that ended up showing more desire. Two tries by fly half Joe Blake, another from Jack Osgood and one from Oli Chennell, with kicking duties shared between him and Tom Johnson suddenly London Welsh had the real concern that the game might not go their way again.

Welsh peppered the uprights with penalties when they had the chance, trying to relieve some of the immense pressure being applied and get some daylight between them and the resurgent Horsham.

The game ended 36-42 to the visitors.

Head of Performance, Ross Chisholm, said after the game: “It was an heroic effort by the lads to comeback at London Welsh like that but being heroic just isn't good enough at this level. We need to start harder and faster so we don't leave ourselves so much work to do. We've pushed probably two of the more established teams in this League to the very end, we just have to be more ruthless from the start.”

Horsham now travel away this weekend (16/09) to Tunbridge Wells, who themselves suffered a loss last week,

Chichester 28 London Irish Wild Geese 36

Regional 2 South Central

by Simon Tanner

The Blues scored four tries – but took only one bonus point from this first Oaklands Park match of the season.

See pictures from the match by Chris Hatton in the slideshow in the video player above.

Chichester welcomed London Irish to Oaklands and made five changes to the team that had lost narrowly to Salisbury the previous weekend.

Josh Brown came into the pack, Josh Stops, newly arrived from Western Australia and making his Chichester debut, joined Seamus McCormack in the backs with George Knight and Dom Taylor were on the bench.

With the pitch looking immaculate after remedial work over the summer by the council, Rhys Thompson kicked off up the slope to start the match on a hot and humid afternoon.

Although the Blues had the better of the early exchanges it only took the visitors six minutes to penetrate the Chichester defence out wide. The conversion was missed.

From the restart, Blues settled into their game plan with some simple rugby and a solid defence which seemed to unsettle Irish, who were conceding penalties as they retreated towards their red zone.

From a lineout eight metres out, Zac Conley secured the ball at the back of the line and the forwards headed for the try line, with a series of pick and goes. Josh Cameron was on hand to dive over for the try, converted by Luca Fleming.

For the rest of the half Chichester looked comfortable in defence but were unable to execute the pass to open up the opposition defence. They led 7-5 at the break.

Within two minutes of the restart Blues conceded a second try, 7-10.

Irish looked uncomfortable under pressure and on 49 minutes were reduced to 14 men when the referee produced the yellow card close to the try line.

Chi continued to press and the forwards inched towards the try line.

Ed Hansell crossed the line but was denied glory when the referee awarded a penalty try and sent another Irish player to the sin bin – 14-10.

Despite being two men short the visitors ran in three converted tries in 14 minutes to lead 14-31.

However, the Blues weren’t finished and from the restart took the ball straight back to the Irish try line where Joel Andrews was on hand to ground the ball, converted by Fleming, 21-31.

Chichester rallied again, and were rewarded with a try when Seamus McCormack touched down to secure a bonus point after another great effort from the forwards. A great conversion from Fleming took it to 28-31.

The home faithful now sensed victory but within two minutes Irish had crossed the try line at the other end – 28-36.

Blues battled until the final whistle knowing that just a penalty would provide a second bonus point but it wasn’t to be. MoM was debutant Josh Stops.

On Saturday, Chichester travel to Winchester (3pm kick-off).