Heathens 0-46 Shelford III

Heathens had a punishing game at home against Shelford this weekend. The visitors started out strong and looked to put Heathens to the sword as quickly as possible, and so avoid the risk of the home side getting any traction from which to build. Strong forward play led by what could politely be called a fallen soul in Jim Norton drew the Heathens into the breakdown areas and created multiple overlaps. There was some encouraging scramble defence from the backs when under pressure which prevented many a score, but a few maroon jerseys made it over the line in the first half.

Shelford continued to dominate the line out and scrum, dismantling any way for Heathens to create much opportunity in attack throughout the game. It wasn't one way traffic though, with long periods of no score and a few tantalising visits to the opposition 22 for Heathens. Unfortunately each period of attack was shut off by Shelford, largely through relentless challenges in the breakdown but also a few unforced errors from the pressure of the situation from Heathens. A collection of injuries used up the bench and the walking wounded were occasionally called on to take another shift on the field, and a few more gaps started opening up in the Heathens defence. Credit to the players not giving up the effort even once the outcome was fairly certain though. A few determined efforts to deny extra tries showed the heart of the team was still very much there.

Man of the match goes to Jenks for being on absolute fire all game! The man was on an absolute mission, kept his head all game and was a stellar inspiration of aggression throughout.

Heathens play St Ives away in a local derby next Saturday