Horsham bounced back form their defeat to Brighton with a convincing win over newly promoted Old Gravesendians on Saturday.
Playing a faster and more expansive brand of rugby, Horsham pressurised their visitors in the early minutes and FlyHalf Ed Phillips opened up the scoring in the 7th minute with a well struck penalty goal.
But the home side suffered three serious injuries – a neck injury to Prop Mark Thompson caused the game to be held up for 45 minutes whilst the emergency services dealt with the incident.
After the delay Horsham resumed their pressure and soon turned their dominance into tries – with scores coming from veteran Centre Nick Stocker, Back Row Iain Fisher and Fly Half Ed Phillips, as they opened up a 24-0 half time lead.
Following the break, Horsham looked to continue where they left off in the first half.
A try inside two minutes from Wing Barry Young and a well worked back line move to allow full back Matt Goodsir to go over, suggested the floodgates may well open to entertain the home crowd.
This was not to be and the visitors, to their credit, rallied well and refused to succumb to the Horsham onslaught. Using what possession they had to camp in the Horsham 22, they forced errors and won good turnover ball on more than one occasion.
From this territorial approach the visitors went over to pull the score back to 34-7.
Horsham did manage to halt any thoughts of a comeback with a second try for Wing Barry Young, direct from a line-out on their own 22 metre line. The ball was moved quickly to the back line where full back Matt Goodsir cut through the defence to off load to the right wing, who cantered in from 50 metres.
The visitors, however, had the final say with the last score of the game, a try from turnover ball won in the Horsham 22. Whilst entertaining to the crowd and pleasing for the Home players and coaching staff, the game will be most noted for the injuries sustained; A Neck injury to Prop Mark Thompson, a fractured and dislocated wrist to Scrum Half Tim Smith and a badly sprained ankle to Hooker Matt Stone.
After the game Head Coach Mal Chumbley said: “All the players have responded well to some criticism dished out during the week, following our disappointing performance at Brighton.
“Today we returned to a way of playing that is more effective, more threatening and enjoyable to play.
The injuries are our major concern. So far we have our top three scrum halves all injured – two long-term and front row injuries mounting up. We will use our week off next week wisely and come back stronger.
“The spirit in the whole club is positive and we look to build on this performance today.”
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