The Hoe Lane crowd have not had the opportunity to enjoy a top of the table clash this season and have spent most of the it looking at the other end of the ladder, so it was great to see the 2nd XV battling it out with one of their major rivals, the leaders Eaton Manor, for the summit of "Group 1 Automotive Essex Merit League - Premier Division."…they are going to need a bigger trophy to fit that on.

The Hertford 2nd XV have had (we are reliably informed) a very successful season to date, and their only league defeat so far has been the 25-10 loss in the away fixture to Eton Manor. Indeed, the team from near Wanstead were Hertford's biggest challenge last year as well and there has been a fair amount of cross-pollination since then. There may not be such thing as Sitch-Ball, but the Hertford contingent have gone and done very well at the Manor and their 1s and 2s have gained a lot. Although wearing the wrong shade of blue, we welcomed back Hertford boys Ollie Cain and Luke Stack, and both showed their talents with Cain crossing for the vital score for Eaton Manor. Stack also did the honourable thing of taking a 10 minute rest to make things easier for us.

The 2nd XV, captained by the Mr Commitment JP, is the right mix of experienced heads for the home crowd to jeer and youthful enthusiasts to get the cheers. It is suspected that the players also learn a bit from each other along the way. Many of the crowd were getting their first opportunity to see some of the players, and it is clear that the next generation (and some of the last generation) have a lot to offer.

This was a high quality game, with a very tense last 20 minutes as Manor worked really hard to even the scores.

The first half started at a canter as David Hale, re-returning from injury played his usual high energy game to get the team going at every opportunity. Quick interchanges led to him going under the posts to make it 5-0, and converted by Powell.

Hertford continued to attack at every opportunity, with Johal pushing the gainline hard and using Drew and Bridgewood to make good yards. In defence, Riddle showed his heritage as he looked for Manor players to hunt down.

The lineout worked well as Brady (who had recently returned from injury and even more recently from the slopes) took usual command, and an imposing rolling maul was unlawfully hauled down as Hertford were about to score. Penalty try.

Quite rightly we took a penalty when it was available, with Powell extending the lead to 17-0.

The fightback started, and Manor scored an unconverted try.

After half time, Manor scored again through Cain in the corner to make it 17-10.

As the second half went on things got more heated as the Manor backs desperately tried to find some holes in the Hertford defence. Defence took priority, and we did brilliantly, keeping most of the play in the middle of the pitch. Learmonth was rather harshly carded at the breakdown, having latched onto the ball as the non-tackler he was dragged off his feet. This meant even more work for the forwards. The defence was absolutely solid. Mellor was everywhere and the Hertford No 8, Miller, was a large physical thorn in Manor's side all day and he clearly enjoyed getting amongst them.

The tension was not helped as the crowd tried to keep track of the 1st XV's game away to Westcombe Park and twitter seemed to malfunction as the reports of defeat turned into reports of victory. Hopefully the 2s could complete the Ole (the 4s having beaten Epping earlier in the day), but the game got tighter and tighter. The Hertford old heads had to resort to a few of the dark arts to disrupt play and there was a very guilty smile on Dixon's face as he got away with some excellent housery to secure an important turnover. The Manor players were not so lucky, and one of them got carded for slapping the ball away.

With the game still on a knife edge it was really good to see even more youth brought on the pitch, including Academy player Gibilaro coming on for his debut (great work with the spicy pernod). Manor had a scrum almost on the centre spot and were ready to launch yet another attack to try and save the game in the last play of the game. Pearson stormed up and stripped the ball from the Manor centre, and then sprinted in to score from 40 metres out. A cracking way to finish off the game.

With 2nd XV and 1st XV both toppling the league leaders, and the 4s winning and being the funniest, it was a good day.

Team: Jon Patton ©, Gus Learmonth, Will McKenna, Will Brady, Jon Dixon, Sean Galvin, Tom Mellor, Reece Miller; David Hale, Hem Johal, Ben Bridgewood, Jack Winch, Adam Drew, Oran Riddle, Finn Powell

James Tan, Ben Newbury, Jacob Sanderson, Luka Goodwin, Ben Southwell, Michael Antony Gibilaro, Alex Pearson.

Tries: Hale, Penalty, Pearson
Con: Powell 2
Pen: Powell

Coach: Dave Phillips