Haywards Heath Colts come past Hove in Sussex Cup

A scrum battle during Haywards Heath Colts' cup meeting with Hove

With Whitemans Green underwater and unplayable, the Sussex Cup clash was switched to the coast.

Heath underperformed in a friendly defeat at Hove last November, so giving the opposition home advantage was only going to make it tougher.

Unfortunately, an early injury to Bobby Collins, Heath’s influential number eight, meant a reorganisation in the Heath back row.

The visitors were applying the pressure, which ultimately led to a gap appearing in the central Hove defence that Liam Macaulay spotted to scoot under the posts with 20 minutes on the clock.

Will Goodwin successfully converted to open up an 7-0 advantage.

Hove responded superbly, going over in the corner from close range but the conversion was missed to leave the score at 7-5.

Heath number ten Will Goodwin spotted a gap in the Hove defence to sprint through and score under the posts.

He then converted to open up a 14-5 lead at the interval.

The home side managed to break through to score a converted try soon after the restart to pull the scores back to 14-12.

After surviving a scare at the other end, Inigo Serjeant was able to crash over under the posts from short range.

Goodwin again converted to provide Heath with a bit of breathing space at 21-12 with just over 40 minutes played.

But back came Hove, who responded and were able to narrow the the deficit to 21-15 with a simple penalty kick from under the posts.

Ollie Owens collected to score under the posts for the Hawks, which was once again converted as the visitors took complete control at 28-15.

However, Hove fought their way back into the game, breaking free to score right against the corner flag despite Heath’s best efforts to prevent the try.

That pulled the score back to 28-22 with around ten minutes left to play.

But this season Heath have learnt how to close out games and once again they were able to work their way into the Hove half and held on for a well-earned cup victory.

Heath colts are on the road at Crowborough in the league this weekend as they look to cement their place at the top of the league.

Anyone interested in joining Heath Colts in the under-17 or under-18 age groups should contact [email protected] – new squad members are welcome at any time.