Hemel Hempsted 46 : Stortford 4s 5

Match Report 3rd November 2-12.
Hemel Hempsted 2's 46 – 5 Bishops Stortford 4s.

Saturday morning arrived after more ups and downs regarding availability this week, particularly as is becoming more typical over Friday and Saturday. The upshot was Saturday morning we merrily met in a busy corner of Tesco’s car park whereupon we realised our full back Rob Sanders (crash ball centre usually) could actually prop very well! Accompanied by his friend Simon Foster who (new to the club, and was coming to support us) we gained a substitute and headed off to compete with 6 from 6, top of the table Hemel.

The first 10 minutes or so started well making ground up the wings. We interrupted their ball in the line and competed with our usual scrummaging power and effective rucking and counter rucking. Unfortunately we then allowed one of their forwards to run through the centre of the field, and they played a few phases well spreading the ball around as we were retreating to get back and scored a well taken try. 2 minutes later they kicked straight between our uprights from almost the half way.

Moments later at a scrum, Clarkey forgot to put his head down properly and had the weight of 2 packs push it down on to his chest, and after trying for a moment was clearly unable to continue so our ‘new player / sub / spectator / replacement prop’ Simon came on to uncontested scrums. The remainder of the first half was us trying to control the centres and limit their fly half which we managed to do reasonably, but this didn’t stop their big 4,5 and 8 ball carrying well up the middle and wingers running very strong, slippery runs resulting in a couple more tries for them.

Half time 17 – 0, and we still felt we were in with a shout, but would need to play as a team more cohesively and cut out the missed kicks, dropped passes and up individuals games by about 20%.

Unfortunately from there it just didn’t happen. Most players on the pitch had good moments individually, but very little strung together phases of play. On the occasions we did we made good ground and looked a good team but this was too far and far between. Conversely, Hemel 2s are obviously a team that played together and train together, and this game became the exemplification of “the sum is greater than the parts” then they steadily played our morale into the ground.

Four moments for me stood out – firstly, I’m sure fondly by the team, me taking the ball from a restart and getting absolutely clattered the second I caught the ball; secondly our full back being dragged across our line as he held onto the shorts of their no 8 to score. Third was a completely made up run by Mike defining defiance to our score line, and eventually dragging 2 of their players over their try line to score; but lastly me and our full back sitting on the floor stopping their no 8 again, but not before he crossed the line, looking at each other and then everyone else who all equally just looked back and not a person looked like they had a word to say.

I spoke to Hemels first aider before the match, and she said they were relegated 4 leagues after being unable to field a team a year or so ago, they don’t want to be in this league but about 2 higher as previously. This showed today and if everything we did came off, we would have challenged them, but clearly this did not happen this time. My sincere thanks to everybody who attended and clearly tried hard, sometimes things just don’t go to plan, and on Saturday the better team won. Thanks to Hemel for a good game and good luck.

Man of the match – a hard choice, but went to our collective back row of Matt Free, Mark Becket, and Kev Stockdale for their unremitting chasing of the game.

Dick of the day was easier, possibly George for 3 knock ons from perfect passes, but then in steps Crystal Hadley volunteering after kicking the ball dead rather than out resulting in a 5m scrum rather than a 10m lineout then in the changing rooms requesting DoD!. Beers are on you next week, you finely tuned race horse you!

Next week, a home game, lets get our game back in winning ways!

Chris