Win in the WIND !

An opportunity for some further game-time this week for our B's, despite the school holidays / injuries impacting our numbers, (10 missing), after the tough trip over to Saracens last weekend.

On a fine but blustery morning, Haverhill were the visitors to Silver Leys for this late October friendly fixture. Early forward pressure and slick handling in the backs from Stortford saw them establish an early dominance and although Haverhill worked hard to compete, the scoreboard ticked over at regular intervals. In all the first half saw the home side run in nine tries to the visitors two and a 41-14 half time lead was a fair reflection of the balance of play.

It looked as if this pattern would continue into the second half as Louis Williams added a further try after less than a minute and Luis Obeng followed up 5 minutes later. From that point however Haverhill really got going and played some particularly fine rugby. The pack worked hard to win more ball and the backs looked dangerous in attack. Their efforts were rewarded with a try after 20 minutes of the half and they continued to be the dominant side until shortly before the end of the half when Joe Wilkes, against the run of play, concluded a well deserved hat-trick and Louis Williams scored the second of his brace to bring the match to an end.

After such a strong first half in which the support play and off-loading were excellent it was always going to be difficult for Stortford to maintain this for the full 70 minutes. Much credit goes to Haverhill for their excellent attitude and hard work which made this an enjoyable fixture, played in great spirit.

Team: Marsh, Simons, Matthews, Williams, Dutta, Goodfellow, Turner, Gleed, Neal, Abbott, Richardson, Hall, Sanchez-Martin, Stevenson, Obeng, Woods, Wilkes, Langan