Youth rugby: Horsham Rhinos unleash ‘fury’

Both packs wrestled for control in the early stages, until speedy Joe Humphries opened Horsham’s account. However, clever positional kicking saw Uckfield snatch possession and equalise, the teams entering halftime deadlocked at 7-7.

“At halftime, I asked the players for five minutes of fury,” head coach Dayle Kirby said. The ‘Rhinos’ responded - Joe Humphries scorched around the Uckfield backs for his second of three tries, and Vince Everitt and Joe Blake converted steady forward pressure into two further tries.

Aaron Collins fielded an Uckfield punt, weaved through a clutch of defenders, and beat the final player with a deft pass to Max Paterson, who scampered over the line for the final score.

Afterwards the Horsham coaches praised their forwards for battling tirelessly against a physically bigger pack, and Number 8 Oscar Quigley was named man of the match.

Under-14

Horsham clinched an eventful win at Midhurst, running out 31-0 winners after a superb display to keep up the pressure on leaders Jersey.

Last week’s magnificent match in Haywards Heath was followed by a great turn out at Wednesday training.

And on a cold away day Horsham started superbly with strong forward Max Elliott scoring after five minutes, Ollie Joels continuing where he finished last week with the conversion.

Midhurst missed a couple of penalties before James Purbrick ran the length of the field to score one of the tries of the season, and the young Green and Whites nearly scored a try of similar quality before half time but the final pass went astray.

With Horsham 14-0 up at the break the temperature continued to drop, though with their side in red-hot form coaches Elliott and Thompson were confident to try different players in unfamiliar positions.

Max Elliott got another try in the corner before Benn Murphy got on the score sheet – and Josh Medley, who now was converting was unlucky to hit the post.

Smurfy followed his man of the match performance up with his second try and this time Josh Medley’s ‘Johnny Wilkinson’ style paid off and the match ended with a stunning 31-0 to Horsham.

Aaron Bulman won his individual battles against his school mates from Midhurst and Callum Robison, Harry Stannard and Chris Lambourne was again dead strong in Horsham’s powerful scrums.

With matches against Shoreham, Bognor and Crawley in the last three league games to come the league title is still in the offing for the side.