Many a slip twixt cup and lip, as the reigning Herts Middlesex champions slipped at the first opportunity to defend their cup as a youthful Letchworth team exploited the wide open spaces at North Hertfordshire's Legends Lane.

The 3s team selection had a distinctly Termite hue and was hugely weighted (in all senses) in favour of the forwards, but was leavened by the addition of the young backline talent of Bullen and Botevyle. Without them it would have been a whole lot worse.

In a back-and-forth first half the teams exchanged scores as they sized each up. Set piece and 9 man rugby was the order of the day for Hertford, and when they did pass it to the backs, front-row-cum-back Best would do a great job of barrelling tight towards the forwards, thereby reducing the running to be done. In contrast, Letchworth wanted to run wider, and use their pacy back row players and backs.

Hertford struck first, battling into the Letchworth 22, with Humphries hitting harder then ever as he skittled people over for fun, and as the breakdowns got closer to the try line wide on the left, there was no stopping fireball Hollis from 5 metres out.

Letchworth replied, before Hertford again used their pack to make ground and force penalties. The front row were irrepressible, with Killan carrying lots of ball into contact. With a 5 metre penalty, hit-man Humphries was the first port of call, before the ball was swung back to Captain Douglas to dot down.

The next try did involve a back, but it was Roberts, so not really a back and not much involvement. The powerful scrum gave Douglas a platform to maraud the blind side, interchanging with Roberts, before Thomas slid in to score. Another close range bundle of a try.
When Hertford did get some space out wide, the forwards had often eaten up so much space that skippy Cartwright was left with almost nothing to play in.

Letchworth were also scoring, often from long range and under the posts, and it was about 3 tries a piece at half time, with Letchworth getting their conversions, and Hertford relying on the mercurial Dixon to slot one conversion from a drop goal.

In the second half Hertford continued with similar tactics – tight and loud.

Possession and 9 man rugby (played by 12 men) was the menu du jour, and Kimsey, on as a sub, brought his characteristic kinetic energy to the table. Hertford utilised a powerful rolling maul (the ref said it was the best he had seen all season!) to make ground, which indirectly led to Hertford getting into the 22, and Dixon going through two tacklers to score.

Gawthorne, the Termite conductor, was having to conduct proceedings from the unfamiliar position of fly half, but resorted to familiar territory by running hard back into traffic when he got possession. This style of fly half play came as a bit of a surprise to the opposition, and was surprisingly effective as he battered through tackles and got the Hertford forwards flying forward. With momentum, the pack bounded into the Letchworth 22, the opposition players hanging off Heltsley time and again, and 'Father of the House' Dossester scampering forward, as the ball was eventually passed out wide to Van Der Ryst to go over in the corner. Having started the good work, Gawthorne remembered he had an important birthday party to get to and made way for Dixon, who was delighted to assume the fly half role – and with his first touch he belted the ball as hard as he could down the pitch. The Hertford backline looked at each other realising they were not going to get any change out of this fly half either.

Having realised that the Hertford team had 3 forwards playing at 10-12-13, Letchworth eventually latched onto the game plan of passing the ball to their backs and letting them explore the wide open spaces vacated by the agrophobic forwards.

Letchworth were using the game to blood 6 of their colts into adult rugby, alongside their paternal coach Amos, and the youngsters performed very well – and ran much more quickly than most of the Hertford players.

Bullen and the abrasive Botevyle had had their hands full trying to tie down the elusive Letchers, with the forwards often not even getting close to a tackle. Legeren also joined the pitch during the bombardment, and put his body on the line to clear up the mess. Inevitably, the tries came and it was hard for Hertford to keep a lid on the Letchworth youth.

Nonetheless, Hertford kept within 2 scores at all times, and the set piece was giving them opportunities. Douglas was causing chaos off the back of the scrum, and Church scored after another of the Captain's breaks.

Hertford did try some adventure, with Price coming on and playing us out of the 22. This was then followed with the try of the game. The only Hertford try that was not built on hard yards and a bundle over the try line, started with Roberts breaking from inside his 22, interchanging with Douglas up to the half way line, releasing Botevyle to burn one defender and batter another, before Roe was on hand on the Letchworth 22 to scoop the ball and slip through a tackle, before roaring round a defender to score. A belter of a try, but not quite enough to bring Hertford back into the game.

Both sides had scored 7 tries, but with almost all of Letchworth's tries under the posts, they won the kicking duel and were able to keep ahead to finish 47-37.

Letchworth organised awards afterwards, and Botevyle and Van Der Ryst were awarded best back and forward respectively.

Well done to Bullen and Botevyle for keeping at it. They will make great contributions to the 2s this season, and look out for Botevyle's appetite for physical confrontation.

The 3s had the most successful performance of the three Herford teams, as the Club faced probably its worst ever aggregate N'Ole Saturday. The teams collectively licked their wounds back at the Club whilst the minis showed them the future in the Floodlit Festival.

Prima Piatti: Humphries, Hollis, Killan, Van Der Ryst, Dixon, Dosetter, Church, Douglas (c); Roberts, Gawthorne, Cartwright, Best, Roe, Botevyle, Bullen
Secondo: Legeren, Price, Heltsley, Kimsey, Thomas
Dolce: G Van Der Ryst (content provider)
Scorers: Hollis, Douglas, Thomas, Dixon, C Vand Der Ryst, Church, Roe
Con: Dixon