Watford 2's (65) vs Stortford 4's (3)

Things started badly with an accident on the M25 causing long delays and, although Watford kindly agreed to a 10 minute delay to kick off, Stortford had little time to prepare and get organised with Tom Brady getting changed on the side of the pitch as the whistle went for the kick off.

We had a very strong looking side on paper with some experienced forwards and some rapid backs but we knew that we had to assert ourselves from the start.

Watford took the kick and immediately put Stortford on the back foot when Rob Neal allowed the ball to go over his head and bounce straight back into the arms of the Watford forwards. After a sustained period of pressure Watford made it count and rumbled over for a try from a well executed lineout.

This set the tone for the next few minutes with Watford camped in the Stortford half and eventually getting the ball through hands for another well worked try in the corner.

Stortford re-grouped and managed a few minutes of possession working their way up to the Watford 22. Our forwards and backs combined well and the pressure led to a penalty and Tubsy kicked the points.

At this stage it felt as though Stortford might come back into it but Watford ramped up the pressure and a combination of their superb No.10 repeatedly chipping the ball over the top, some good support play and a few missed tackles from us led to Watford running in a further 4 tries in the first half.

Despite our best efforts Watford continued where they left off in the second half and put Stortford under pressure from the start. As always seems to be the case when you’re on the back foot there were also a few questionable decisions from the referee which further sapped the spirits of the team.

Frustrations eventually boiled over following a blatant off side going unseen resulting in yet another try for Watford. As Watford were taking the conversion Rob Neal approached the referee to ask whether he deemed the clearly offending player on-side or whether he had just missed it. The referee stated that he had made his decision and that it was just one of over one hundred decisions he would make in the course of the game.

Tubsy who, by that stage, had joined the conversation helpfully suggested that all 100 of those decisions where s*@t and was quite rightly shown a yellow card for descent.

So much for the impassioned pre-match speech about keeping our opinions to ourselves and directing all questions and comments through the Captain

Debatable decisions did not lose us this game though. We just lacked organisation against a very strong well drilled 2nd Team.

Despite the one sided scoreline there were some highlights too.

It was great to see Chris Collings back at Full Back today, along with Tubsy at Scrum Half, Tom Brady at Fly Half and Lippy playing in the centres. It was also great to welcome Morgan McKewan and Ryan Clark to the squad and I’m looking forward to us continuing to develop as a more cohesive unit at training on Thursday.

Man of the match today was Ryan Griffiths. No hat-trick for him this week but he worked tirelessly in defence and made several try saving tackles and turn overs.

Dick of the day was Tubsy for his yellow card. Unfortunately he had left Watford RFC before the penalty pint was awarded so it was passed to Tom Brady who stepped in to cover the scrum half spot whilst Tubsy was taking his 10 mins. Unfortunately Tom had also left RFC so the pint was passed to Lippy who had stepped in to cover for Tom whilst he was covering for Tubsy.

I’m pleased to report that some pride was restored at the end of the day with Ryan polishing off his pint in record breaking time and Lippy following hot on his heels.

Next week we welcome Weston to Silver Leys and I look forward to putting this week behind us with a strong performance and a win on home soil.