Solid win for Darts against a lively Heathfield team

Darts entertained Heathfield knowing it would be a tough match following the late win in the preceding away fixture .Darts started brightly and when Jarlath made a break he popped the ball to Harvey who rook the ball on strongly and eventually the ball was held up over the line. Darts managed to keep the pressure and were forcing the visitors to give away penalties and following a number oif driving mauls the ball was taken on with a sharp break from Miles who scored in the corner. 5-0. A great break fromHeathfield took play into the Darts 22 and the pressure resulted in a penalty in front of the posts which they converted. 5-3. Another penalty chance for the visitors but luckily for the home side it went wide. It was really nip and tuck with contrasting styles, Heathfield were moving the ball quickly wide and Darts using their strong forwards to keep enormous pressure on the visiting pack. Jonny was again looking very sharp and from this pressure at the set piece allowed Jake to score and Jonny landed the conversion. 12-3. Altghough this was the score at halftime it was an entertaining match with both teams contributing to the spectators enjoyment.
The second half started with expectation from both teams and early pressure came from Heathfield who then moved the ball into the wide spaces but Harvey not for the first time this season was extremely alert and took the interception and raced to the line, a good chase back fom Heathfield saw him tackled on the line and despite grounding the ball the referee deemed it a high tackle and gave a penalty try to Darts. 19-3. Darts were now in the ascendancy and Heathfield were struggling to contain the Darts forwards and this gave the home side spaces out wide to exploit. A good kick forward by Jarlath put play into the opposition half which Heathfield did well to clear but from the resulting lineout Darts moved it to the backs anf=d a finely placed kick wide was taken perfectly by Elliot who raced in from 40 metres to score an excellent try. Jonny converted. 26-3. Darts were enjoying themselves now and were opening up stretching the visting defence. More drives from Darts and Smiler picked up at the base of the ruck and drove powerfully and speddily through numerous tackles tp score a very popular score. Jonny again converted. 33-3. If Darts thought Heathfield were finished they were qrong and good play took the game into the Darts 22 and from a scrum the ball came out at the side and Darts were too slow to react and a greta switch in midfield saw Heathfield go over for an easy good try. 33-10. Darts hit back again and playing the ball out wide there was great interplay between Jonny and Pady which nearly resulted in another try. Darts continued to dominate the scrum and sfter driving forward 15 metres there was some great play between Jonny and Harvey which resulted in a great score for Jonny who also converted. 40-10. Ted had been a thorn in the side of Hethfield with some great bullocking runs ably backed up by Joe and Will and this always saw Darts make ground and this didnt change when Tom Adams came on the field. Dan Sweeney was also doing a fine job standing in at hooker. The visitors were not finished and a good scrum saw clean ball for their scrum half who made a greta break and although there were a couple of tired tackles from Darts a couple of gret offloads saw them scare an excellent deserved try to end the match with a final score of 40-17. A good bonus point win for Darts and great contributions from our prope Steve Garrett and Louis Chapman who were awesome throughout. Jake Taylor and Briggo were also solid in their work in the backs not allowing any space for the opposition. It was good to see Miles back at scrum half but in the second half he was ably replaced by evergreen Danny Taylor.
Man of the match was given to skipper Lewis Potter who leadership an allround play was excellent.