Bishop Stortford 3's V's Tring 3's

On Saturday 4th September the threes played a friendly against Tring 2nds in what was a very close fought game against the travelling team. Even before the match started Stortford were struck with a serious blow by having most of the regular team either on holiday, injured or being scared of playing for the 3’s. This lead the starting line-up to consist of a second row and a flanker as our centres and Sean Foster (fozzy) coming out of retirement as a prop to play flanker. With a few others playing out of position (Dummer and Stu Newman sharing full back) Not having a reff (so Perry Oliver Kindly stepped in) and having to embarrassingly borrow a player from the opposition for a home game, Stortford were eventually ready to face the opposition. As my first full proper game as captain I tried to blow away the doubts of the team problems with a rousing speech, “no wanking in our pints this year!” With this the team was fired up, with the doubts of placement and an unfamiliar opposition Stortford started well. With a well worked backs move the ball was kept firmly in the opposition half. A few minuets’ later Stortford were awarded a penalty in front of the posts, but instead of kicking it we decided to use the height and ability of new second row John “He Man” Carter. We took the line out and easily caught it, bringing down and setting up an amazing driving maul which was being controlled by returning player Sean “Fozzy” Foster before Greeny picked up the ball from the back and crossed the whitewash giving Stortford a 5 point lead. But with this Stortford seemed to take their foot off the pedal, we became lazy and Tring made good use of the numerous dropped balls and defensive gaps and followed with two quick tries. Both of which were converted. Stortford was now starting to head towards a downward spiral when the half time whistle blew. A few choice words and a shift round in defence gave Stortford a few options; we decided to shift the momentum of play to the forwards as that was where we were strongest. We came back into the second half with more determination and grit and now had our heads screwed on. Within a few minuets’ the forwards through a series of pod work and quick passing got to the opposition line with a great run by Tom Mckirdy only to be held just before the line, he offloaded to John “He Man” Carter who stretched his way over the opposition line scoring us a nice try under the posts. This was converted and Stortford were back in the game and keen to win, this was shown in the physical form of He Mans streaming bloody nose and the massive gash now across Dummers face after he flew into a massive tackle (obviously watched too much Super 14’s down under). Unfortunately Stortford’s aggression started to work against us as we started to receive penalty after penalty for talking back to the ref or fouls in the rucks. This lead to many decisions being overturned and Stortford being pinned in their own half. While the team was disjointed we were still strong in the defence holding off attack upon attack from Tring, with every run with their big boys coming within inches of our try line but every time being denied. Eventually they managed to break through and scored a lucky try that was half caused by confusion on the touch line. Within minuets’ Stortford countered with quick thinking on a 22 dropout followed by a massive run from his own 22 by Ben “The Sidestep” Usher. Dodging player after player, Ben “shimmied” his way to the opposition try line in a move James Copper would have been proud of on the dance floor of his salsa club! This was followed by another conversion and the score stood 19-19 with only a few minuets’ to go. All we needed was a few extra points and so did they! Tring started throwing drop goals and darting runs at us and we countered with driving malls and brilliant distance kicking. Unfortunately this came to no avail as in the last few minuets’ a badly timed pass in the backs lead to an interception by their full back and a try that was converted. Seconds later the whistle was blown and both teams took a great sigh of relief for what was a very hard, gruelling and physical game. Tring were obviously a well drilled team that has played with each other on many occasions. However Stortford rose to the challenge and looked at many points of the game like we were going to win. All players did well considering many were out of position and we had no replacements, if we can play half this good when we have subs and a full team the rest of the league better be scared!
Man of the match – Sean “Fozzy” Foster for being all over the pitch, tackling like a beast and having last played 4 years before! Notable mentions go to Frosty for brilliant Mauling, Brhino and McKirdy for being all over the park and John Carter who stole nearly all of their lineout’s as well as making a few good runs on his 3rds team debut!
Mare of the match - Jo Neal and Neil Spalding (shared dirty pint) Jo played brilliantly, but was let down by being a flanker in inside centre..but the crimeable incident was when ran half the length of the pitch boshing players out the way only to drop the ball forward over their try line just as he was about to score. Neil also played well and controlled the backs extremely well given the situation but talked back to the ref turning decisions and gave them their last try.
The team played very well considering the lack of players and people playing out of position... fitness was good and players stayed round in the bar after for a beer! Well done!

1. “El Digglo” Bradley
2. “Brhino” Finch
3. Frosty
4. “He Man” Carter
5. Merly
6. Tom McKirdy
7. Fozzy
8. Greeny
9. Dum Dum
10. Neil “Sperm/Liability” Spalding
11. “Sidestep” Usher
12. Joseph “the body” Neal
13. Chris James (Nickname pending)
14. Their Bloke (played well to be fair)
15. “Stewie” Newman