As one-club there has to be meritocratic progression between the 4 senior teams, and where people have performed well that needs to be recognised by the coaches and opportunities given to see if they can develop. The Hertford faithful will be delighted to hear that the match report last week for the 4s was such a belter that the correspondent was asked to go and do it for the 2s this week – along with 80 minutes of pushing in the scrum. A number of other 4th and 3rd teamers were also asked to make the step up this week and did admirably.

Playing for the 2s is no hardship when it is captained by ever-present stalwart and regular 1st XV player JP, and supported by the 1st XV class of Moss Goodwin and Sonny Swift.

Moss is a silky 7 who attacks with precision with ball in hand and especially when the opposition has the ball in hand (he ripped the ball loose at least four times on Saturday). He also scored two tries, the first a step and then burst through the Woodford defence, and the second a pick and go after several rucks. With just a couple of minutes to go in the game he then used his pace to get away from the defenders and over the line destined to score his hat-trick, but then in a disgraceful act of dishonour to his thirsty team mates he gave the scoring pass to the energetic Jacob (someone that was not even born when the correspondent last played at Woodford in Hetford's London 3 NMW promotion winning season of 2000/1 – age shall not weary them).

Sonny is a blonde ball-playing bulldozing second row in the non-mulleted mould of England's Jonny Hill. He also came away with a mature try, which came from our dominant line-out maul and a controlled burst from the back. He is another young lad who has a lot to offer.

Another player to get a brace was Sam Kasoulis who was playing in the centres this week and regularly caused havoc with his pace, including a determined run in the second half to score in the corner.

The Man of the Match however went to the work-horse cage dancer that is Offy, who is loving his return to rugby after a break. Offy puts in a huge shift whenever he plays and the number of tackles he makes is immense (he definitely makes life a lot easier for the rest of the forwards). He also does the support work, and our first try of the day was scored after Moss had made a break and the ever eager Offy was there to take the offload when Moss was dragged down just short of the try line. Quite whether Offy wanted his turbo shandy reward for this hard work is another matter.

The other player that deserves some real praise is Moley. He had been in bed non-covid non-hungover ill for a couple of days, but dragged himself to Woodford 20 minutes before kick-off to ensure we almost had a full team. Within minutes he was on the charge, but it was pretty clear that he didn’t have much in the batteries or his stomach. Nonetheless, after a break from time to time he would rejoin the team, although the very differently shaped Sean had slotted incredibly well into the tight head position. A great sacrifice and thanks for ensuring that we could have a proper game.

Other scorers may have been: JP (with one cool hand Luke Roe claiming 50%) from a maul; Tom Davies using his good lines of running to break the gain line and score (there were a record breaking three Leeds Gryphons on display for Herford); and Ben finishing off the proceedings with a try after a very decent game in the backs. We also got lots of conversions this week and a 50/22 from Albon as he replaced his poisoned chalice with a rugby boot.

It is also worth mentioning that the referee showed great understanding and facilitated a good natured game. He was even gracious enough not to tell off experienced second-row players for being offside – noting that he had himself spent his entire playing career being offside!
With all of the plaudits there has to be some pasting to be done. Woodford have a great rugby set up and it was a pleasure for them insist on the traditional post-match awards, and when JP had to decide upon the Dick of the Day the decision was effectively taken away from him when Fred pretty much self-nominated (via his mate from uni) for the award. The uni mate had generously taken videos of Fred running slowly and knocking the ball on – and that was guilty enough for us.

Team 14: JP (c), Galvin, Mole, Swift, Church, Offord, Moss, Roe; Davies, Albon, Bridgewood, Kasoulis, Jacob, Johnston.

A big thank you to Coach Nick Lacey and Jr Lacey for getting a team out and keeping us going.

Match reporter: Alfred
(Chippy was too old)