Heathfield crush Trinity to reach Cup quarter-final

Trinity started brightly as after a couple of minutes with a try by their standout player and captain Farooq Agbalaya but that was the end of the good news for the visitors. Heathfield successfully followed up the restart and built some pressure into the visitors’ half. Good scrum ball was worked into midfield and Liam Dunkley was just contained but a penalty at the resulting breakdown allowed Toby Simpson to knock over an easy three points.

Heathfield were gradually starting to take control assisted by an increasing penalty count against Trinity. Simpson and Ollie Tooke were noted with some good work on the left hand side which led to a period of pressure on the visitors’ try line and Tom Reilly worked his way over just before the half hour. (10-7)

Trinity then had a long-range penalty chance but it was short and the half ended with more Heathfield pressure. Several phases finally ended when Simpson exuberantly touched down in the top corner under the clubhouse balcony.

The half time score of 15-7 may have suggested a close contest. In reality Trinity had been unable to exploit the slight slope advantage they had enjoyed in the first half. Heathfield had done the hard work and duly reaped the rewards as the young back division cut loose.

Tries came steadily thereafter. Any hope of a visitors’ resurgence were soon quashed as Simpson ran back a Trinity kick out of defence and he exchanged passes with Dunkley before the latter claimed a deserved try.

Dunkley then claimed his second on the day following a handy interchange with Tom Tingley. Approaching the last quarter a Heathfield attack into the left hand corner was completed by the timely arrival at pace of replacement Archie Adams.

The last few minutes saw three more home tries. Dylan Eames benefitted from some useful work by Joe Lewis who then also contributed to a score by Tingley. The game was ended by a second try for Adams after another eye-catching run by Simpson as the visitors tired.

Heathfield next face Ashford away in the national quarter-finals. The league results between these two sides suggest this will probably be a close contest (this Saturday, April 27, 3pm).