Extra A 28 v Hertford 14

Extra A 28-14 Hertford

Four teams at home promised both excitement and chaos on Saturday at Silvery Leys. For the Extra A it was the small task of facing a Hertford side whom we had narrowly beaten in an outstanding game earlier in the season, and were just 3 points behind us in the league.

Any hopes of a flowing game of Rugby were all but diminished before the start; the pitches were soft to say the least with one or two puddles to really make it interesting. The Blues kicked off into the sun and began to assert pressure immediately, Alex Tindall and David Rose both finding holes early on.The game was scrappy until the 15 minute mark, with dropped balls and some loose passes costing us possession. However, things began to click for Stortford when Spermy used a decoy line from Mackenzie and found Tindall in space, the centre showed his power and pace to beat 2 defenders and recover from a tackle that wasn't held to fall over the line. Sperm added the conversion. The game continued in a somewhat unstructured manner with a lot of handling errors on both sides; mention must at this point go to our entire pack who were ruthless in all of the many scrums, winning some against the head and setting the platform for two tries. Hertford would score next though, in their first foray into our half their powerful centre managed to shrug off some feeble tackle attempts and go over in the corner; the difficult conversion was added by the Hertford fly half. The Blues fought back well, and after breaks from Roche, Banks and Prindy (who butchered one) we found ourselves with another scrum in the Hertford half, a decent nudge saw Rosey pick up from the base and find space on the blind side, he dummied and used his freakishly long legs to score a good try; conversion was again added by Sperm. We went into half time with a 14-7 lead, which should really have been more.

The second half began and the weather deteriorated, hailstones pounded the surface for a 10 minute period which was not enjoyable for anyone. The Extra A again had chances but a soaking wet ball and pitch made it difficult to gain momentum. However after about 10 minutes good ground was made by Alex Walsh who nearly scored out wide and we were awarded a penalty from the resultant break down. Captain Slade showed confidence in his powerful pack and opted for a scrum; after getting the nudge on we were awarded another penalty which we again scrummaged, this time our 8 proved too strong and pushed Hertford back over their own line for Rose to score his second, Sperm added a decent conversion. The Blues scored again 10 minutes later, Sperm chased his own dodgy kick through, fly hacked passed the oncoming opponent and fell on the ball close to the posts for another 7 pointer. Hertford finished strongly and after some good defence on our line, their 10 found a gap and scored with 2 minutes left. We held out and the eventual score was 28-14.

As previously mentioned, this wasn't a pretty affair and it was never going to be, but our pack dominated the set piece and the break down which was eventually the difference between the two sides. Comedy moments included JC trying to drown an opponent (not as bad as it sounds), Roche having 2 hissy fits, Sperm feigning to punch a large winger who flinched like nothing I've seen before, and Tindall throwing the ball at Stiggy's face..twice. D**k of the day however went to Prindy, for butchering a certain try with a forward pass to Pikey Mikey. There were several man of the match contenders; Oli Banks was brilliant in tough conditions at 9 and a case could be made for each of our forwards, particularly Baker who had an outstanding game once again. The award was however given to David Rose for a great all round performance in only his second game this year, and bagging two tries.

We have a massive game away at Hackney next week, and a big social planned for afterwards!!