Extra A 41 v Letchworth 2s 19

The Extra A welcomed Letchworth 2s to a busy Silver Leys on Saturday, with our first and second teams also playing at home. Letchworth are a well established side in the premier division of our merit league set-up, so we were fully aware of the physical challenge that lay ahead. The freezing cold wind was blowing strongly, but this would not stop a free flowing and entertaining game of Rugby from a youthful Stortford side.

Stortford kicked off with the wind at their backs in the first half and immediately asserted pressure on the Letchworth 5m line; our front row trio of Harrison, Cattell and Moore offered themselves willingly and began to smash holes in the Letchworth defence. With space out wide, some total d*ick head decided to throw a long pass, which was intercepted by none other than the Letchworth winger, who raced the length of the pitch to score a converted try completely against the run of play. The Stortford players collectively looked like 7 year olds who had just found out that Santa wasn't real, as they realised that even the great one could make such mistakes. Not an ideal start, but a line was drawn under it and we went on the offensive immediately from the re-start. After some ferocious work at the breakdown from Ben 'The Saint' Baker, a penalty was forced and we sent the ball into the corner. The resultant lineout was safely won, and our entire pack showed enough grunt to shove a well worked maul over the line for Will Moore to touch down. The conversion hit the post to leave us 2 points adrift after 15 minutes. It took a further 10 minutes for the next score; some meaningful midfield carries from Tiarnan Kelly, Jonesy or Rosey and Alex Tindall gave us good position on the opposing 22, Sperm used the dummy line of Slade to go clean through and, with just the 15 to beat, fed Alex Tindall who went in under the posts for a 7 pointer. Redemption?

Letchworth continued to run the ball from everywhere as the first half wore on, and the Blues were guilty far too often of falling off of first up tackles; the covering tackles of Stig dog, Rory Banks and winger Ben Stapleton were required more often than they perhaps should have been. However, we were not broken down and after an excellent break from scrum half Sam Read and further booming carries from Joe Tracy and the tireless Ben Harrison, we were once again camped on the Letchworth line. No interception passes this time, and when Tank (playing as an animalistic, physical defensive general at 12 this week) received the ball he used his quick feet to half break the line and stretch to score a try, which was duly converted by Sperm. We went in at half time with a healthy 19-7 lead, but knew that with the wind against us we still had 40 minutes of hard work ahead.

Half time saw the introduction of Dean Boyle at 9 for the impressive Sam Read, as well as Hayden Farrelly and Will Palumbo for Will Moore and Jonesy/Rosey respectively; both of whom had fine games. It's a credit to the strength in depth at BSRFC currently that we can afford to bring off such influential players without worry. The second half kicked off, and after some deep kicks were handled well by our back three, we found ourselves with possession just inside our opponents half. Alex Tindall came steaming through on the inside of Sperm, took a flat ball and ran round/through 2 defenders before feeding Rory Banks inside who ran in a good converted try. Letchworth, to their credit, came fighting back and despite a brilliant cover tackle from Tindall eventually barrelled over in the corner for an unconverted try. We fought straight back though, and after once again receiving clean lineout ball, Sperm fed Stapleton inside who stormed through, beating three defenders and taking us just within the opposition 22. The first man on the scene after Ben was eventually hauled down was flanker Hayden Farrelly, whose speed of thought saw him pick up the ball and speed of foot took him clear of 3 on-rushing defenders to score close to the posts. Rather irritatingly, we let the re-start kick bounce and Letchworth were on the front foot; another mistake left space in behind and they kicked through and managed to beat the blue cover to touch down, capping off 4 minutes to forget for Stortford. This left the score at 31-19 with 10 minutes still to play. Letchworth tried to run from deep as they were now chasing the game, but their runners were constantly hauled down, particularly by the ruthless flanker pairing of Baker and Banks. We were awarded a penalty 5 minutes later which was duly converted. With about 7 minutes to play Stortford scored their best try of the day, a line break on the left from Baker (haven't mentioned him much so far) saw him feed Tom Cattell, Tommy tied in 2 players and got a Michael Jordan-esque pass inside to debutante Will Palumbo, who carried well and offloaded to Banksy who went in under the posts for the last meaningful action of the day.

This was certainly the best side that we have beaten so far this year, and the style in which we did it was the most impressive aspect. I feel that I haven't mentioned Tiarnan or Tank enough this week; both of whom were relentless in defence in the second half. Tindall, Banks, Harrison and Cattell could all have been named MOTM, but the saint Ben Baker (with a point to prove) was like a man possessed for the full 80 minutes; to give it anyone else would have been wrong. I really thought I had d*ck of the day sewn up after my early howler (I even thought forward to the pint I'd get to down), but nothing is ever straight forward in the 3's, and I was outdone in spectacular fashion by Tommy Cattell, whose chip ahead didn't quite have the desired affect. I'd like to finish with a rare bit of inter-club love, and congratulate our second team home boys on their resounding victory against the previously unbeaten Hertford- in my worst American accent "Good Job". First and fourth teams also won for a clean sweep!

Home again next week, Hampstead, game on!