Horsham fall to defeat at the hands of Sussex rivals Chichester

The visitors had the early pressure. Tom Blewitt missed a penalty attempt but then on 15 minutes fly-half Rhys Thompson ran through a gap in the Horsham defence and then spread the ball wide to Eddie Jenkinson to score the first of his three tries.

Horsham responded going through several phases of play before No.8 Michael Tredgett made one of his trademark surging runs before the ball was moved on to Oli Chennell to weave through and score converting his own try, as the Green and Whites took a 7-5 lead.

Chichester responded immediately with a try from Josh Brown following a line-out drive to regain a 7-10 lead. Blewitt hadn’t yet found his kicking boots and missed his third successive kick at goal otherwise the scoreline would have looked far worse for Horsham.

For the remainder of the half the game was a fairly even contest but Horsham were struggling to gain quality set piece possession, and when they attacked in the three quarters they were met by a solid Chichester defence until shortly before the break the visitors won a penalty and kicked to the corner.

Having secured the line-out ball a couple of phases later Rich Ives drove over to score converted by Blewitt.

Chichester started the second half more strongly and soon sliced through the Horsham midfield for Jenkinson to score. Jenkinson then completed his hat-trick on 56 minutes and with both tries converted by Blewitt the game was already beyond Horsham at 7-31.

The Green and Whites increased their tempo and regained momentum with some good recycling before the ball was spun wide for Austin Emens to score in the corner to narrow the deficit to 12-31.

Tredgett made another surging run to create a good attacking position and Chichester incurred a yellow card for incurring too many penalties in the red zone but Horsham were unable to turn this pressure into points, and to put a gloss on proceedings against the run of play Chichester ran through a gap in the Horsham defence for Ross Miller to score.

Head of rugby, Nick Stocker, said: “A disappointing result but signs or greater cohesion and energy compared to last week’s performance. The 10 minutes either side of half time were critical and with our set piece malfunctioning, and an increasing penalty count, we could never establish enough territory and pressure to score. In the last 15 when we upped the pace we began to look more dangerous.

"There were some encouraging signs however, including the threat posed when we get into our rhythm, as well as some strong carrying options available to us most notably shown by Taylor Morris, Jack Osgood and if course the handful that is Mike Tredgett who in particular had a great game with ball in hand.

"Austin Emens looked a threat when he came in and George Jeavons was excellent in both defence and attack. We look forward to watching how both these young talents develop over the next few years.

"Oli Chennell however got the nod as man of the match continuing a string of good performances showing how well he is settling now to life in senior rugby.

"With players performing well in our second team who registered a big win over Sussex 1 team Burgess Hill, and injured players nearing fitness, the next few weeks will prove interesting on the selection front with an expected upturn in results to follow.

"Next week we travel away to Battersea to play Ironsides in a first league encounter between the sides.”