Extra A 64 v Finchley 2s 15

Following their impressive victory against table topping Belsize Park last week, the Extra A had the luxury of another home game this week, against a Finchley side that we had only narrowly beaten away after an admittedly lackluster performance earlier in the season. After some mid-morning snow and frost, the conditions cleared up nicely and conditions were perfect for some running Rugby.

The Extra A once again boasted a full bench, showing strength in depth from 1-18. With the sun behind them in the first half, Stortford kicked off and immediately began to exert pressure on the Finchley line after telling carries from both starting centres, Wasley and Roche. It took only a couple of minutes for the first score of the day, Mike Whitehead crossing from close range for his first try in a Blue shirt, conversion duly slotted by stand-in skipper for the day Sperm. This would set the tone for much of the half, as the next try followed after only another 5 minutes; after some powerful hits in the midfield from the Stortford back row, the ball found it's way into the hands of Simon Wasley who ran a good 60m, stopped, handed off the covering defender, and cantered the last 15m to score, to cries of 'he won't do that again' from the opposing skipper; he was misinformed. Conversion missed. It was not all one way traffic though, and to the visitors credit they did attack the Blue line hard, forcing some good scramble defence around the park. It was Stortford who would strike next though, this time flying full back Mikey Roberts going in in the corner after a strong midfield surge from Roche. It was winger Alex Walsh's turn soon after, finishing powerfully in the opposite corner after a good break by McKirdy. The Blues next try came from none other than Mr Alex Wilson, who took a good line down the blind side, took a pop from scrumhalf Dean and bundled his way over in the corner; Sperm this time added the extras from out wide. The half did not however finish as the Blues had hoped, after we were caught on the hop by the visitors and their winger went in in the corner.

Although we held a commanding 29-5 lead at half time, we had played an okay half of Rugby but were often guilty of trying to over-complicate things which meant we were not as clinical as we perhaps should have been. The second half kicked off which saw the introduction of superstar Alex Kiff & the magical Brian Finch for Roche and Whitehead respectively. We started brightly again and after strong breaks through a tiring Finchley midfield, Mckirdy managed to go in under the posts. 10 minutes later saw the second try from Wasley, shrugging off 3 tackles from within his own half to score under close to the posts. Finchley showed great spirit to claw back another try through the same winger who opted to stroll round the outside of the supposedly quick Mikey Roberts. It wasn't long before we scored again though, Alex Wilson of all people finishing off some neat midfield play. Sperm got in on the action next, using a decoy run from Wasley to dummy and burrow his way over. There was then a period of pressure from Finchley, who continued to press the Stortford line; the man who had scored 2 of their tries already broke the line and saw 'lightning' Mikey Roberts covering in defence and once again took a slight deviation to seamlessly evade the tackle and score out wide. With only a few minutes left on the clock, the Blues showed good determination to have the final say, and scored through rampaging Dave Brunner with the last play. All second half conversions were slotted by Sperm (all from the touchline, no biggy) to leave the final score at 64-15.

It was always going to be difficult to beat the high of last week's victory, but another strong performance and eventually a resounding victory for the Extra A. It has also been confirmed that Belsize lost to Hackney, meaning that we are now joint TOP with them, and if Hackney win their game in hand they will also be on the same number of points; tight!

A lot of strong performances from the Blues, most notably Wasley, Mckirdy (until the saint beheaded him) and Roche, however man of the match was awarded to prop Alex Wilson, for a sterling performance around the park (including a hilarious 'tackle') and bagging two tries; a rarity for any front row. Dick of the day was Alex Kiff for rocking up at half time without a care in the world. BIG game away at Fullers next week!