Hove v Horsham

Hove 21 - Horsham 31

We are getting closer but still need to know how to close out games when we are in the lead with a few minutes to play.

A very tight game and Horsham were obviously running scared when the score was Hove 21 - Horsham 17 as they had to resort to clearing their bench with seven fresh first team players. However but for the gift of two tries in each half we would have achieved a well deserved win against a very good Horsham side. Their coach's on the sidelines were becoming very nervous towards the end of the match. Some very strong and determined defence on our try line held them at bay for long periods of time and Steven must have saved at least 3 tries. It's a pity we were less tight in open play

Good tries from Harvey (when we were down to 14 players) , George and Juan - he of many positions, came after some very strong pressure from the Hove forwards with penetrating pick and drives. A special mention must go to Juan who in the few weeks he has been at Hove he has played in almost every position on the field. After the match he said he now prefers the front row. Not a position for the feint hearted. My kind of player. Dom has also become a very much improved player. His chase of Georges kick in our half resulted in him tackling Horsham's winger and doing a tech book jackal to retrieve the ball and put all our forwards on the attack.

A moral victory as the performance was much improved from our last two encounters with Horsham. .Our only failure was in not being able to contain the powerful and penetrating runs from Horsham's very fast backs., which was the cause of our problems in the past . We need to discover how to close down such an attack before it starts and be able to release our own very capable backs..

Up front we more than matched Horsham and our makeshift front row at the end of the game showed no weakness

Still much to work upon but we are making some very strong steps forward

Mike

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