Hitchin 2s 5 - BSRFC 3s 19

This weekend saw the rescheduled away match to Hitchin. Having put over 40 points on Hitchin at home, Bishops Stortford 3s suspected that Hitchin would dig a bit deeper in their home match. With much rain falling in the 2 days leading up to the match however, it was looking like it was going to be another slippery and muddy day.

Right from the very first play, unforced handling errors became the norm as the ball was like a bar of soap and it was not long before both teams started to lose their patience, some more than others. Petty arguments plagued the first half of the game and it would appear that a number of the players were more interested in starting fights rather than playing rugby. What looked like it was going to be long afternoon of no points, was broken just before halftime when Gus Parkhouse went over the Hitchin line to score a try (conv Stockley). A strong half-time speech by Sean Foster put a stop to the niggly behavior and the 3s came out of the blocks in the second half for a much better performance. No sooner had the second half commenced, Matt Slade was over the line but unfortunately the try was disallowed. Stortford realised that they could play better rugby from this however and a few moments later, Tom McKirdy found himself in space and managed to score another try for Stortford. This put Stortford at 0-12 up. Hitchin were not going to roll over however and with great forward pressure, they retaliated with a try in the corner to bring the score to 5-12.

The second half was a much better performance from Stortford and the forwards were linking up with the backs with much greater effect. It was this half when Stortford showed their class and got down to playing serious rugby. Just before the final whistle, Jovan Masalunga dodged five tackles and touched down a hard worked try (conv Stockley) to seal the match.