On Saturday the Mitres took on Hammersmith and Fulham RFC which we knew would be a tough game as our opponents the week before played Richmond and beat them, we knew this would be a great test and certainly would prove more of a challenge than our last game.
The Mitres kicked off the match from left to right and from the word go; the Mitres were applying heavy pressure on our opponents. However our opponents were certainly up for the challenge and were not going to let us over their line without a fight, however they did not enjoy being pinned back in their own half so early on in the match. Within the first 15 minutes of the game Gage opened the scoring, after some great work from the Stortford pack and brilliant link up with backs and forwards alike running in the first try to open the scoring for the mitres. Ash Boyle was sadly unable to add the extra two points.

Within minutes tries from the mitres started to flood in, with some brilliant carries from the forwards coming from Radley, Etherington, Dante in particular,really putting the mitres on the front foot. This in turn created tries for Hector, crossing the line twice with some terrific breaks and fantastic footwork. Josh Winter also managed to get to get his name on the scoresheet. Ash was having a difficult day from the tee but managed to hit one of the three conversions to add to the mitres score. Our backs were also showing how deadly they can be with ball in hand and open space.

Some fantastic hands and some great lines opening up our opponent’s in defence, however credit to them as they were determined not make this easy for the Mitres and were managing to slow play down at the breakdown and even turnover some of the Mitres ball. However the Mitres pack were really getting on the front foot and really dominating the scrum in attack and defence, Gavin and Bugg in particular proving a handful and managing to get over the game line. Just before the half time whistle O Radley managed to get over the line and cement a good lead going in 27-7 up at half time.

The second half got underway, with the mitres looking to push on and really try to grind down our opponents. It was actually the visitors that started better, Hammersmith and Fulham clearly had a strong team talk at half time, and wanted to really test the mitres defence knowing they had already managed to get over the mitres line once. However the mitres defence was looking very solid and certainly looked like they would have to throw everything at the mitres if they were to get over the whitewash in the second half. The first try of the second half came around the 60 minute mark where credit to both teams, as they were showing some good skills both in attack and defence, however Brad Etherington managed to extend the mitres lead with some great carries and hard lines and finally crashed over the visitors line. Once again sadly Ash Boyle couldn’t add the extra two points.

As substitutions were made and the visitors were starting to look tired and the mitres were really looking dangerous with the pack putting us on the front foot once more giving the backs good ball, it looked like there were going to be more tries from the mitres as they were hammering the opponents line. Sadly the visitors were not going to give up and were going to make Stortford work for any more tries. After some good defending from the visitors they finally couldn’t hold young T Radley who managed to crash over the line from a couple metres out. Finally Ash managed to get a conversion and added the extra two points and this meant the game finished 39-7 to the mitres.

Man of the match was a tough decision as there were a lot of strong performances and could have gone to a number of people. What was very pleasing was it was a great team performance and bodes well for the season ahead. Special mentions must go to Gage, Readshaw, Etherington, Hector, Mahoney. However there can only be one man of the match and this went to Gavin, he was everywhere and really covered the ground well in attack and defence with some important yards being made and also some fantastic defending and was very unlucky not to grab himself a try. DOD was Ash Boyle for having a horrendous day from the tee and as he wasn’t there to see a pint of at the end of the game meant young T Radley had to step up and do his pint.

Next week we travel away to Richmond which I’m sure will prove a great test for the mitres.

Tries
Gage
Hector x 2
Winter
O Radley
Etherington
T Radley

Conversions
A Boyle x 2

Squad
1. Gavin
2. Gage
3. Bugg
4. Radley
5. Teddy Oliver
6. Dante
7. Readshaw
8. Etherington
9. Hector
10. A Boyle
11. Roberts
12. Moore
13. Mahoney
14. Marsh
15. Winter
16. D Boyle
17. T Radley
18. Lowbridge