Chichester Festival

Chichester today was a wake up call for the boys. Chichester and Haywards Heath were, as ever, very strong, organised and pacy. I had the privilege of reffing games that each were involved in and they were clearly going to be tough ties. They played for each other as a team and focussed on the match at all times. Our lads started slowly with a few basic errors leading to some gifted tries as they shipped 5 to both Chi & HH, with opportunistic scores from Ryder & Warney the only bright points. The last game I saw before having to rush off was against Brighton however and our boys started to show what they can really do. With much better presence in the game, straighter running, an aggressive defensive line, better rucking, handling and decision making they responded to going a try down (surely that ball broke forward off the Brighton hand, sir?) to run a lovely “sweaty” try in themselves. 1-1 it finished but the boys were much happier as a result. We await news of how the final game of the day went in beautiful conditions over in lovely Chichester.