Extra A 61 v Hampstead 2s 12

Hampstead second team made the trip to Silver Leys on Saturday to face off against the Extra A, who have been enjoying their time in the top division (minus the first 2 weeks), having won all of their last 5 league games.

Hampstead kicked off with the stiff breeze at their backs, meaning that the elements would be firmly against Stortford for the first 40. It is fair to say that things weren't exactly firing for the home side in the first 10 minutes; far too often we squandered possession and gave away needless penalties which allowed Hampstead to camp in our half. This culminated in our visitors going over in the corner for a 5 point score, after some lacklustre Blue defence. Much like last week, this seemed to galvanise the team, and it didn't take long for the Extra A to hit back and, after some good inter-play between Slade and Harrison, Sperm managed to break and offload to prop Ross Johnstone who was not going to be stopped from close range. Hampstead came back at us immediately though, and ended up with a scrum on our 5 meter line. They put us under huge amounts of pressure and it looked certain that they would walk us back over our own line. However, the Hampstead 8 made a mistake when trying to gather the ball and returning scrumhalf Cal Brown pounced and turned over possession; the ball was recycled quickly to Sperm who half broke and then found Tank with an offload, Tank fed ugly winger Mikey Roberts in space on the right. There was a time when Pikey Mikey would have beaten the last defender with ease to score, but unfortunately not even the cries of "run fat boy, run!" could speed him up, so he chipped ahead and forced the covering 15 to kick the ball into touch. We were able to this time make the territory count, and after a good platform from the lineout and strong midfield carries from Johnstone and Jones/Rose, a nice set move opened the defence up and Roberts was able to go over untouched to make the score 14-5.

As we eased into the match we began to relax and play our more natural game. Tom Roche, having made several powerful surges already, was rewarded for his efforts after Tindall and Baker both carried well; the latter offloaded to Rochey who went over for an unconverted try. The Blues had time to strike once more before half time; a well weighted cross-field kick from Sperm caught the flat Hampstead defenders napping, and then a bit of luck with the bounce saw the ball fall into Mikey's arms, the winger this time managing to round the last defender and score under the posts. This left the half time score at 26-5.

We had played some good Rugby in the first half, but still hadn't fully hit our straps. We kicked off for the second half and, after some hard running from Derry Joyce, James Murphy and Stig dog, we were camped on the Hampstead line. Tom Roche then cut an exceptional line and took a fine delayed pass from Brown to bundle over for try, which was converted by Sperm. To their credit, Hampstead came right back at us and after getting good ball from their solid scrum, they managed to smash over for a converted try of their own. We fought back almost instantly, Sperm this time dummying his way through and releasing the supporting Will Palombo who went in under the posts. The next play of the game saw a piece of individual brilliance from a heavenly human being. The kick off was safely taken by Slade, who got a quick pass out to the Saint well inside our own half. The Saint carried towards two oncoming defenders, both of whom were palmed off with relative ease, he continued to rampage up the field using his monstrous fend to leave in his wake no fewer than 6 Hampstead players. As the final man sheepishly moved towards him, Ben selflessly lifted the ball to Pablo on his inside to put the second row in for his second of the day. As the game opened and the defence tired, Sperm was able to find a gap and race clear for another converted score. With 5 minutes to play, our skipper Matt Slade found himself rampaging down the right hand side; he had 1 man to beat and Mike Roberts (eager for a hatrick) on his outside. Slade showed an excellent amount of selfishness to throw a horrendous dummy, get tackled AND lose the ball in one big, calamitous, hilarious piece of amateur Rugby. Mike was over the moon, d*ck of the day was sorted. The final play saw booming winger Alex Tindall go crashing through, he committed the 15 and gave a pass to Tank. All that was left to do was run about 10 yards and put the ball down, but Tank couldn't manage this; he got caught but was saved when his dodgy offload somehow went to hand and Cal Brown scored under the posts. Sperm kicked his eighth conversion from nine attempts to leave the score at 61-12.

Some mad skills on display today across the park, and, although our discipline was questionable at times, it was a good performance on the whole. Man of the match was wide open; Johnstone, Baker, Roche and (annoyingly) the Pikey were all close, but second row Will Palombo had a great game in the row and was deservedly rewarded with his pint. DoD, as mentioned earlier, was hands down Matt Slade after possibly the worst 15 seconds of Rugby that I've ever witnessed- a shame because I'd say he had a good game up until that point. As we don't see big time Roberts in the 3's much these days, we got him a pint too for jug avoidance following his brace. He downed it in 3, which is actually an improvement.

Onwards to what will be a tough clash away to Old Habs next week.