A lovely sunny day for what has become a staple in the Termites fixture list over the last few seasons. Hatfield for a pre season friendly, albeit over at Welwyn RFC (boiler troubles apparently).

There was much concern about the new tackle laws pre game, with the referee's talk doing little to allay fears it would be “f***ing s**t”, but it was 25 degrees and the ground was rock hard so many of us were keen to avoid tackling at all.

Hatfield started much the stronger with a core of experienced guys and a few novices on their team; they carried aggressively and made inroads into the Hertford 22. Solid defensive effort and admirable scrummaging against a very handy Hatfield tight five was the only thing keeping your handsome heroes at parity. Finally some lovely work over the ball by Slimming World’s Alex Douglas relieved the pressure and allowed Hampstead Heath loanee M. Pizzey to get us out of our half.

Fabulous free flowing attacking play with numerous offloads got the Termites into Hatfield territory, which usually means around a 35% drop in house prices, before Victor shipped a 2 on 1 straight into touch. Thankfully a penalty saved his blushes as Gerhard, who was loving the warm weather and rock hard pitch, made a great carry through the Hatfield pack and the ball was shipped out to Cody for a well deserved try.

Hatfield then struck back with some powerful scrummaging and a jinking run from their inside centre. And with the conversion scored they took the lead.

The powerful athleticism of the Termites team then kicked in with frightening force, ferocious carrying from the back line and delicious offloading took the boys repeatedly into Hatfield territory.

Scores including a 60m worldie from Pizz, fabulous handling resulting in Hertford’s very own Matt Banahan Jon Dixon making his debut on the wing with a diving wingers finish in the corner, and Victor capping off an excellent half with a meat pie.

HT 7-22

The second half was a more brutal defensive display with massive defensive hits being put in across the board with PC Airey chopping down Hatfielder’s with the expertise you’d expect from an officer of the law.

Further excellent displays were to be found across the board with serious industry coming in from the engine room with Scully and Bell impressing on the first outing of the season. Hertford’s two lightest men Fullback Greg Donovan and wing Paul Neilson both putting in fine legal hits in their large boys Brewdog kits.

Victor also joined in on the big hits wagon smoking Hatfield’s 16 year old winger with all the gusto of an England captain, thankfully due to Gawthorne’s chop tackle being excellently timed the Termites managed to avoid paying for a barrister for the officials to see sense. Which was for the best as just moments later Alway redeemed himself by throwing a sensational dummy that would have made King Carlos Spencer himself blush.

Your boys continued to shut down Hatfield attacks before being rewarded for good play by Ellis Roberts burrowing over for a trademark short range score. Victor signed off with another score before getting carried away and attempting an offload behind his back five metres out which quite frankly undid all of the kudos he had gained with his earlier exploits.

Bit of niggle towards the end of the game but all in all a good old scrap and a reminder to everyone of the joys of getting your head rattled at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. Beats the fucking garden centre.

Hatfield 7-36 Termites
Attn: 36 and a dog

Team: Humphries, Airey, Thomas, Van Der Ryst, Scully, Bell, Ball, Douglas; Roberts, Pizzey, Crook, Gawthorne, Alway, Dixon, Neilson,Donovan

MOTM - Cody Ball - we’ll see less of him the longer the season goes on brutal display and always nice to see a forward place kicking (not you Jon)

Match details

Match date

Sat 02 Sep 2023

Kickoff

15:00

Attendance

Team overview