Horsham Under 18 Girls went to Worthing looking for a bounce back from the first loss of the season against Basildon before the Christmas.

Both Worthing and Horsham won their pools in the National cup, with a potential meeting in the quarter finals if they win their respective last 16 matches. If that wasn’t enough, there was even more spice to this local derby as some of the Horsham girls attend Worthing College, so would be playing some of their College team mates.

From the kick off, Horsham’s defence stood strong, putting pressure on the Worthing attack and putting some low tackles in, led by Ellie Eddies, Sophie Roberts and Alina Hillicks in the backrow. Some ill-discipline from Horsham, including some unappreciated conversations with the Referee put Horsham under pressure early. A second turnover in the Worthing 22, lead to a short range try from Grace Clifford, which was converted by Freya Bell.

Some good pressure relieving kicking from Bell, then set up good field position for the Horsham pack. A dominate catch and drive, which was then collapsed close to the line, the ball was sharply spun out to the backs where Katie Shillaker squeezed over for her first try of the afternoon, again converted by Bell.
More pressure from the Horsham scrum and defence but again were penalised a couple of times and came away pointless from a visit to the Worthing 22. The Worthing back line continued to look dangerous until a turnover lead to a try from Mimi Clifford. Close miss by Bell led to the score being 19-0 at half time.

Worthing came out the stronger in the second half causing a few mistakes from Horsham, which led to Worthing’s first try of the game after a few miss tackles from Horsham. The successful conversation making the score 19-7 and the Worthing girls spirits lifted, the next 10 minutes were critical.

Then came 10 mins of high intensity and pressure rugby from both teams, both showing their quality in attack and defence and very much demonstrating their National cup successes were no fluck. This stalemate was ended after a penalty was given in the Worthing 22 and some quick tap from Shillaker allowed her to power over for her second try, duly converted by Bell.
Almost immediately from the kick off Worthing showed their class, jumping on a loose ball from the kick off and one miss tackle allowed them to score within minutes. The try was unconverted taking the scores to 26-12.

Following the next deep kick off, Horsham were able to put pressure on Worthing, which led to a penalty 15 metres from the line. Lucy Senneck’s quick thinking saw a huge hole in the Worthing defence, drawing in 3 players to put Freya Bell in to score, but unfortunately missed the subsequent conversion.

After the restart, some heavy tackling from Shillaker and Tiggy Bellinger allowed Horsham to get the ball back. Macy Lawes took the ball right up to the Worthing defence drawing 2 players and with a expertly timed pass, put Shillaker through a gap who then rounded the full back to score under the posts from 60 metres. Bell added the extras to extend the score to 38-12.

Worthing’s never say die attitude put them in good position with 2 excellent pick and goes from their number 8 and then a fantastic line from their centres gave them the deserved last try of the day.

The Final score was 38-17 in a well fought game, played in the best spirit. Thank you Worthing. Mimi Clifford was voted by Worthing as Player of the match, with the Horsham coaches voting that Eve Clarke, Izzy White and Imogen McCall being in a close joint second, for setting a solid platform all day and some good runs between them.

After a rejig 7of the Pools in the National cup, the Horsham girls will now be playing Basildon away in the last 16 of the National Cup on the 30th Jan, and their next match against East Grinstead at Home on the 23rd Jan.