1st XV lose to Heathfield & Waldron

Folkestone 1stXV 5 Heathfield and Waldron 1stXV 22
London 3SE
Saturday 19th December 2015 by Steve Hughes

Folkestone were unfortunate this week to have six of their regular players unavailable for various reasons and having to face their visitors who were currently top of the League table. They were without Seyhan Fell, Tom Carvill, Tom Snare, Will Turner, Kyle Deakin and Josh Kemp but they were not going to use that as an excuse and provided Heathfield with stern opposition through to the final whistle. It was obvious that the visitors were a well drilled side capable of moving the ball swiftly between forwards and backs and that inter-passing was a feature of their game.
Folkestone opened brightly to pen the visitors in their own half with searching probes by Jon Morton and John Eustace. Crash ball was a feature of their opening salvos but the visitors defence was not to be breached.
A home try seemed imminent when Lewis Howland swooped outside his opposite number and passed inside to John Eustace up in support who cleverly chipped the ball ahead as he was being flattened but it just rolled over the dead ball line before anyone could get a hand on it.
Jon Morton again sent Lewis Howland away to see him crashed into touch inside the opposition red zone. Up to this point Folkestone held the territorial advantage but Heathfield were a lively side and their 'pick and drive' tactic was putting pressure on them.
Some of that pressure paid off when they opened the score after Chris Petley had shuffled the Heathfield wing into touch on the corner flag.
The following line-out ended in a loose maul and quick ball to the outside centre saw him cross for a converted try. 0 - 5.
Folkestone were holding their own in the set pieces and prominent in the loose mauls were Chris Petley, Frazer Hendy, Kieran Smith and newcomer Will Melia.
Ollie Walton got close to scoring but was held up on the line only to see Heathfield work their way back upfield to score in the corner. No conversion 0 - 12.
From the kick off the home side worked their way downfield with Jon Morton and Will Melia in the fore but were once again thwarted by the strong Heathfield defence. Folkestone were trying desperately to outmanoeuvre the opposition and were moving the ball whenever possible but half time came without any change in the score still at 0 - 12.
In the opening minutes of the second half Heathfield converted a penalty in front of the posts to increase their lead to 0-15 points and the game seemed to be drifting away from Folkestone. Adam Tolman linked up with the three-quarter whenever possible and his inclusion in the line posed problems, particularly when Ollie Walton and Charlie Watson were involved.
An exciting move by Folkestone saw the ball move across the three quarter line from left to right only to see Jon Morton crunched into touch on the corner flag. Will Melia then made a break through heavy traffic before feeding Jon Morton who cleverly chipped for the corner where Charlie Watson was on hand to pick up and score an unconverted try. 5 - 15. Folkestone's spirits rose and gave their all in trying to increase their score but unfortunately it was the visitors who put the final nail in their coffin in an excellent move of flowing rugby. It started on the left touchline, flowed over to the right, came back again to the left before the Heathfield centre sliced through a depleted defence for a converted try. 5-22.
Folkestone are strong contenders for the top end of the table and look forward to the New Year before restarting their campaign to climb the ladder. A good performance today and nothing to be ashamed of in being beaten by the League Leaders.

Squad: Adam Tolman; Charlie Watson, Ollie Walton, John Eustace, Lewis Howland; Jon Morton, Doug Wood; Martin Murray (Capt), Will Melia, James Archer; Jack Barton, Kieran Smith; Jake Ellis, Chris Petley, Frazer Hendy.
Subs: Mike Gardner, Josh Holt, Ryan Farrow.
Scorer: Charlie Watson.