Extra A 22 v Tring 3s 10

The Extra A travelled across the County on Saturday to face a struggling Tring 3rd team. The day didn't have the best start for the Blues, with traffic causing us to arrive late and only have 10 minutes to stretch off before the game got underway.

Despite the unsettled build up, it was Stortford who exerted the early pressure, with good metres being made from fly half and from number 15 Owen Guest. The first score came after 8 minutes when, after several phases of crash ball runners close to the breakdown, the ball was released from 10 via Mackenzie into the arms of Jake Brough, who showed searing pace to round the covering defence and finish under the posts. Unfortunately, soon after this we lost both scrum half Alex Walsh (hip) and second row John Carter (calf). This saw the earlier than expected introductions of Army Dave Walker into the row, and Ryan Griffiths into the centre meaning that starting 13 Tom Brady stepped in at scrum half.

The Stortford set piece was struggling somewhat and they had a quiet ten minutes following their early score; during this period they absorbed and repelled several waves of Tring attack, strong tackling from the whole squad. The next try however did go our way, and similar to the first; strong ball carrying into the heart of the defence from Kiff, Mackenzie and Baker eventually saw the ball shipped left, again to Brough, who finished strongly in the corner for his second of the day; the conversion was missed. The remainder of the half was slightly error strewn with some questionable refereeing decisions ensuring that there were stoppages of play when there shouldn't have been, and the game was left to flow after blatant knock ons- bizarre.

The second half didn't get off to the best of starts for the Blues, with another injury in a key position, this time leaving us without a 10. This saw Joe Tracy come on in the back row, and superstar seven Ben Baker move into the centre with Kiff at 10. Despite the re-shuffle, the blues continued to attack; the energy of scrum half Tom Brady eventually proved pivotal after the 9 carried from the back of a ruck, got his arms free and offloaded to Skipper Slade who finished untouched. Conversion missed. The Blues were then reduced to 14 men when the referee binned hooker Whitehead for 'kicking the ball away'; Stortford, Tring, the supporters and the horses watching in the next field all agreed that he was actually kindly giving the ball back to Tring, but alas, decision made. Tring, to their credit, scored a good try next with a chip in behind Collings finding space and their rapid 10 gathering neatly to score out wide. No conversion. The next play though saw the man of the hour Jake Brough score again out wide, after strong central carries from Griffiths and Kiff saw the ball recycled to the winger to score his hatrick; jug. Brough would have had his 4th soon after, if it wasn't for the return of the butcher; Ben Baker has a clear 2-vs-1 with Brough outside (the bloke has scored 3 already) so Ben calmly decides the best option is to throw the ball at his feet- tit. The final act of the day was a well worked Tring try out wide again, which left the final result at 22-10.

Injuries and people playing out of position meant that it was never going to be an easy game for the Extra A, but we showed once again that we know how to grind out a win when we are up against it. Special mentions go to our back 3 of Brough, Collings and Guest who all had great games both going forward and as our last line of defence; hatrick for Jake wasn't bad either. Joe Tracy made a huge impact off the bench, showing great power and skill in equal measure. Mackenzie and Macfie were once again solid at the front. Man of the match though was rightfully given to Tom Brady who was busy all day, carrying and defending in an aggressive manor. D**k of the day was Ben 'the butcher' Baker for the aforementioned terrible piece of Rugby, driving like a grandma and ending up in Broxbourne en route to Tring.

The Extra A are now unbeaten in seven matches going into their final game before the Christmas break against Hampstead; if you are reading this then I expect you to be attending both the game and the post match Christmas P*ss up!