After two matches on the road, the 1st XV were back to Hoe Lane to take on the league leaders Westcombe Park. We had beaten second placed Shelford in our last home game, so this was not an insurmountable challenge.

The pack welcomed back James Kinsley after a couple of months out injured and Luke Stack who has been out for a couple of weeks, with George Gadsby having his first home game. The backs had some tweaks, but have had a consistent core of players for some weeks now.

The Hertford team were well set, and needed to be to take on the Westcombe Park side that is not so much spearheaded as tankheaded by a particularly imposing and impressive pack of forwards. As such, possession was hard to come by and Herford faced a lot of pressure – and mostly dealt with that pressure very well.

Park got their first try on 15 minutes after sustained and relentless phases of play, and one of the big lads taking a good line to score near the post and it was 7-0.

Herford were giving away too many penalties, and Park showed that they wanted to get their try scoring bonus by kicking for the corners. Our defence held out, and several times we secured immense turnovers in our 22.

As the half progressed, we were able to get into Park's half and get in the game. One of the humourlights, if not a highlight, was birthday boy Keens finding himself with some open space and putting in an agricultural punt forwards. It has made a big difference having James back in the side. His pride bursts out of his shirt, even if some of it is of the London variety. Whilst his hard hitting and offloads are usually what we expect (the iron fist in a velvet glove), we can also enjoy the kicking skills. The Park supporters singled out Keens for praise in the bar afterwards – albeit they focussed on the iron qualities.

Basra was also leading from the front, with vocal support and typically combative in the loose. Following his charge down, we secured a penalty that Lemon scored to make it 7-3.

With a few minutes left in the half, Park got back into it and scored out wide to make if 12-3. We had one last chance to attack from a lineout in Park's 22 going down the hill just before half time, but the decision went against Hertford.

The second half was bookended by Park tries, and no other points. From the restart the very decent Park No 8 made a break resulting in a converted score 19-3.

There then followed 40 minutes of hard slog, with Hertford working extremely hard – and even harder as we kept losing players to sin bin and getting kicked backwards. Park were clearly determined to get their 4th try, and Hertford were not going to give them anything unearned.

Whilst the aspiration of a rugby team should not be to stop the opposition scoring 4 tries, it can be an objective measure of a team. Westcombe Park have won 9 out of 9 this season, and only been denied a try scoring bonus point by second placed Shelford. As slim as the pickings maybe, denying Park a bonus point was something that the Herford crowd saw as a decent objective.

Nonetheless, there were flash points of attacking inspiration from the Hertford team. Hale was effervescent as ever, doing some great work off the back of rucks and scrums – one arcing run took him deep into the Park half, and he could maybe have backed himself to go alone (again) but chose to pass and the move fizzled out. Gadsby also had some impressive moments, making huge amounts of ground from No 8, and then breaking the line with the full back to beat from 30 metres his chip ahead didn’t quite bounce right (the F. Scott Fitzgerald roaring 20s headline will have to wait for another week!).

This was not a day to focus on attack; it was a day to battle. And they did, most of it legally. Stack's powerful work at the breakdown and in the tackle was prominent, and Gadsby got a couple of decisive turnovers. Rudling, as ever, put himself about in the backline, and Hale's sniping all added to the largely mudless but wet entrenchment.

There was some damage from the attrition, including at least two yellows. There was also one of the politest complaints to some iron fist action that the Herford crowd has seen. In addition to the impact of the yellow cards, we also lost Swift to injury and it is hoped that he will be back…very swiftly.

The line was eventually broken with the very last play of the game. With a depleted Hertford pack, Park dominated the scrum and were able to spread it to the other side of the pitch to score their fourth try. This was important to Park and a disappointment to Hertford.

Next steps

What this means is that Hertford have two massive games coming up.

First up is Sidcup away, this Saturday (Crescent Farm, Sydney Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 6RA), and then Sudbury at home on 26 November. These will be absolute crackers so make sure you do what you can to support the team.

Team: Basra, Tan (Stack), Bellringer, Swift, Keens, Gadsby, Corcoran (c), Kinsley (Banna); Hale, Batty, Sorce, Cavlan, Rudling, Barker, Lemon