Extra A 77 v Datchworth 2s 14

The Extra A turned their attentions to the cup on Saturday, with a quarter final tie away against a Datchworth side whom we had beaten in the league twice this season already. However, complacency was not the order of the day as we all know that cup matches can throw up unlikely surprises. Fortunately, this would not be the case today.

Datchworth kicked off with Stortford playing up the slope in the first half. The intentions of the blues were clear from the outset and after initial breaks through the center channel we found ourselves camped on the Datchworth line; veteran number 8 David Rose needed no second invitation to bundle over close to the posts for our first try of the day. Although we were on the back foot in the scrum, the power and pace of the Stortford backs in open play was proving too much for Datchworth to deal with. We unfortunately lost scrum half Ronan Ryan after 20 minutes with some bad ligament damage to his ankle; a shame as he was having a great game until that point. This saw the early introduction of Cal Brown from the bench, his debut for the Extra A. The pick of the first half performers was outside centre Tom Roche, who bagged a hatrick within the 40 minutes. Further tries were added before half time by Mckirdy (2) and Alex Tindall. All conversions were added by Sperm, taking us into the break with a commanding 49-0 lead.

We made two substitutions at half time; another debutante Max Hammond coming on for Mckirdy at 7 and Oli Banks making way for Dean Boyle who came on at 12 following a re-shuffle of the backs. The second half did not start as we would have hoped, with some lazy defending allowing the hosts to bundle over following several direct phases. We struck back though almost immediately through Miikey Roberts who up until this point had had an uncharacteristically quiet game. Again we became a bit too greedy and let our defensive standards drop, allowing Datchworth to score again, this time out wide. We did however finish the game as we had started, with another 2 tries for Roberts (one of which an absolute beauty of a chip through) and the final score going to Max Hammond following a great offload from the assist machine, Andrew Mackenzie. Sperm was able to convert all 11 of today's tries, after his team mates were kind enough to all touch down close to the posts. The final act of the game which must be mentioned was one of the hits of the season by Dean Boyle; their annoying 7 was making his way for the line, for glory, already anticipating the wild celebrations that he would spark when he dived over the whitewash.. when Dean lined him up, took a 10 yard run up and nailed him in a lawes-esque fashion. A thing of beauty.

This was another great run out for the Extra A, who's expansive style of running Rugby has proven difficult for some of the lower teams in our league to deal with. We must however beware that much sterner tests lie ahead over the next month.

D**k of the day contenders included the following:

- Rosey; falling over when setting off to chase a re-start kick
- Macca; not scoring.. again (you've got no tries)
- Sperm; horrendous effort at a back hand flick
- Mckirdy; jug avoidance after scoring 2 tries, and then going off
- Ronan; after requesting a trip to a&e following his injury, manager Ben Millard replied 'how about we sit you in the bar with some ice on it?' Ronan's response was 'yes, fine, but only if you buy me a pint'.

The winner however was Alex Walsh, for screaming for a high ball with no one around him, jumping 20 minutes too early, and then dropping it in spectacular fashion. He also brought along his 'mate' (debutante Max Hammond) who clearly hates him; Max adjudged Alex's foot to be out in the first half when he looked certain to score, apparently he was at least 2ft inside the touch line.

Notable mentions must go to Tom Roche for a great game scoring 3 tries and quite literally running over his opposite man, Roberts for yet another hat trick and Mckirdy who surely would've completed his own had he stayed for the duration. Man of the Match however was Andrew Mackenzie, who had a great game all round, making himself a nuisance at the breakdown and (of course) helping to set up tries all over the place.

Easter next weekend and then back in action with our cup semi final on the 11th!