Praise be to the front row union. Often presented as the perfunctory side dish to a Saturday afternoon feast of rugby, at Hertford the Michelin men truly earn their Michelin stars and provide the front row entertainment. They draw in the majority of travelling support and provide the heart of the team; indeed, in days of famine when desperately trying to herd together two social teams, it is the loyal front rowers who come out in force time and again. Well done all.

On Saturday, we had 6 front rowers in the pack, one in the back line, and 5 on the bench. We even managed to throw the ball around a bit, until the deteriorating conditions and deteriorating conditioning resulted in an eventual slug fest.

Hertford started with real energy, in the best of the weather. They blitzed the tight play with Carpenter bouncing (almost Big Daddy style) attempted tacklers, and the big gun runners of Humphries and G Van Der Ryst and C Van Der Ryst pummelling through. With OAs not defending the rucks, there were lots of yards to be made and lots of momentum and space for Roberts to feed the hungry forwards.

Humphries has a lot to stop, and yet as he drove through a couple of tackles to get over the tryline, the OAs defenders turtled him. His arms and mouth flapping away as he was stranded on his back frantically trying to turn over, and persuade the ref - honest sir - that he had scored. Fortunately, his quiet and respectful personality meant that he didn’t complain about it for the rest of the day.

Soon afterwards, Hertford went through the same motions, and this time turned to some American beef to do the hard work. Jase the Ace came up Trumps as he barrelled through the defence to score under the posts. Whilst it was a bit windy, it was apparent that our St Albon was willing to martyr his conversion attempts in honour of his faith in our ability to score tries.

With some of the pre-match tactical briefing taken up by actual tactics and briefing, Hertford had queried how they were ever going to win a lineout with a pack of front rowers, but it turned out that C Van Der Ryst was actually pretty good at it and produced a steady stream of possession.

Despite playing into the tempest, Hertford opened the game up and unleashed the formidable centre partnership of Stacey and Sillitto on the opposition, as Hertford had their best spell of the game by far. With some proper running rugby, Hertford stretched the defence and hooker Airey found himself careering down the left wing and releasing Stacey to go over in the corner. Our Old Albonian missed again.

This was soon followed by more running rugby spearheaded again by Stacey's determination and aided by the spritely and no-longer very front rowery Ellis. The ball found its way to Airey on the left wing again, and with great hands he distributed the ball out wide to Coles to score a cracking try. Coles is one of several youngsters coming up through the Termite pathway™ and has really impressed with his pacy skill and desire to have a go. No need to confirm that the conversion was missed.

Quinn over on the right hand wing, more familiar with the warmth of the pack, was beginning to get hypothermia as the ball never got to him.

The good times continued, as Hertford completed their domination of the first 30 minutes with Church picking up from a ruck to score untouched. With the exception that proves the rule, Albon did get a conversion.

The game changed as OAs began to compete much harder at the breakdown, and spent the last 10 minutes of the half pressurising Hertford. OAs had been buoyed by a (quote) "thinning / bald fat tight head" coming on for them, who initially appeared - somewhat to the surprise of the Hertford defenders - in the centres. In truly Corinthian (Rugby!) spirit, Douglas had offered to play in the front row against Hertford when the OAs front row had got injured and the scrums uncontested. As mentioned earlier, we had loads of front rowers and for some reason they love scrummaging – even against their own team mates.

OAs went on the front foot and Quinn and Brewer finally had some tackling to warm themselves up with. OAs scored with the last play of the half to make it 22-5.

Hertford brought on its very youthful front row bomb squad of Kimsey, Killan, Chambers and Compton-Cook, albeit distributed throughout the pack. All good solid runners and have lots to offer in the future.

Whilst Herford had had their own way for most of the first half and taken a deserved lead, the second half was very different as OAs brought themselves right back into it. The conditions deteriorated, which made handling – and our passes to poor old Sillitto – increasingly tricky.
OAs scored another unconverted try in the second half and it was game on.

After much huffing and puffing, and quite a few knock ons, Hertford finally got into the OAs half to provide a platform to attack. With a revitalised defensive line, Hertford were having to work much harder to make progress. Eventually, after probably 30 minutes of not scoring, Compton-Cook took responsibility for the pick and goes, and drove himself over. Good quality decision making. No conversions obvs.

With the game becoming increasingly insular, Brewer tried several times to inject pace onto the ball by running from depth. Eventually Hertford got there, and Brewer was able to burst through the defensive line to score.

As the gloom and rain descended, Hertford ran pretty quickly for the changing rooms as soon as the whistle went.

Well done to the Captains for ensuring that we got a team out. It is getting increasingly hard work for them. So if you are reading this and want to play, please put your hand up.

As a postscript, the Hertford team playing this coming Saturday features 7 front rowers in the pack! If you see a Hertford Front Rower then offer them a drink. They deserve it.

Front row and extras: Humphries, Airey, G Van Der Ryst, C Van Der Ryst, Heltsley, Ellis, Church, Carpenter; Roberts, Albon (c), Quinn, Stacey, Sillitto, Coles, Brewer
More front row plus Matt: Kimsey, Killan, Compton-Cook, Chambers, Douglas [OA], Price
Tries: Heltsley, Stacey, Coles, Church, Compton-Cook, Brewer
Missed conversions: x5 Albon
Punishments: Douglas (hero) and Sillitto (hands)