Several excellent weeks of training finally delivered a performance from the Under 15s that the coaches frustratingly knew was always possible! An impressive start from the Stortford forwards, who came out determined to win every ruck and dominate the set plays, was rewarded when the ball found Calan out wide and the winger skipped forward to beat the final man and score in the corner. The good work from the pack continued and after repeated drives Zico broke the Tring line and scored under the posts with Fabian adding the conversion to give us a deserved but close fought 12-0 lead.
Tring were far from overcome and fought back strongly, piling pressure onto the boy in blue and eventually being rewarded with a try in the corner to close the half time gap to 12-5. Tring came out strong after the break and continued to dominate, but our defence held strong and our forwards ground us back into the game. Several impressive carriers took us down field and eventually Carter spotted a gap and ran through to score. Stortford's confidence was returning and Tom G decided it was time to "have a run", after crashing through several tackles the flanker found himself clear - but with a long run ahead of him! Needless to say, his fitness held up and he scored under the posts. Calan added a second try when he charged down his wing, beat his opposite number and left himself with another long sprint to the line.
Our backs were playing with a new found confidence, moving the ball quickly, trusting each other and creating opportunities - this led to fullback Fabian being provided an ideal line to power through and add try number six, before an excellent passage of free flowing rugby presented Will S the opportunity to score our final try.
Make no mistake, though the scoreline was heavily in our favour, this was a very good Tring side and the match was in the balance till the middle of the second half. Both sides battled strongly, but it was Stortford's day to shine and the boys turned in an excellent performance. With many players producing their best performance of the season, MoM was tightly contested, however with 2 tries and an incredibly brave try saving tackle, Calan deservedly took the prize this week.
Well played lads, lets build from here!