Hertford U 13 v Old Albanians

Hertford – Tennis Court Pitch

Sunday October 14

This week saw Hertford host our long term local rivals Old Albanians in what has always been a closely fought encounter.
The rain stopped just in time for the start of the game, but the conditions were never going to be easy.
The coaches had clearly worked their magic over the past two weeks as the mistakes of the Harpenden game of slow start, poor rucking and mauling, staying too narrow in defence and sloppy off loads were soon to put to rest.

The boys got off to a much quicker start which resulted in putting persistent pressure on the OAs. Even with some difficult handling we managed to put together a number of phases and some strong running from the forwards and backs resulted in a score for Archie H after about 10 minutes.
We were now beginning to exert some dominance in both the scrummaging and the breakdown with both forwards and backs recycling the ball well. Unfortunately, our dominance in the pack resulted in OA being awarded a penalty for Hertford pushing too far. A law designed to provide player safety but very difficult for the players to manage against a weaker scrum.

It was following a good Hertford scrum and some good quick passing from the backs that Jack S scored our second try at about 18 minutes. Quick hands and passing also resulted in our third try from Luke M not far from half time.

OAs did not give up and created a couple of break-aways from their own half through their very speedy wingers, one which resulted in a try back for OAs. George at full back put in some very brave tackles, the second of which stopped a certain try. Unfortunately, he was injured and had to be helped from the field. We hope this isn’t anything too serious.

We turned around at half time 15-5 ahead.

OAs kick off was instantly returned by some strong running and a nice off load from William to Taite who still had a lot of work to do to score one minute into the second half. A great start that gave the boys some additional confidence. However, this confidence also resulted in Hertford dropping their level of intensity which had been great up to this point, allowing OAs back into the game. This resulted in OA scoring their own second try not long after, again via their speed merchant, to bring the score to 20-10.

A great feature of the game so far had been the offensive defence not giving OAs any room to move. This started in the second half at Harpenden and continued throughout this match. The boys got back into their stride again after this second try and the rest of the game was dominated by Hertford. Pressure was telling on OA's discipline who were marched back 10m several times for dissent to the referee.

Finn Newton was playing at full back and collected a number of high balls and returning with interest. Taite scored our fifth try running in following another well caught kick by Finn, a half-break and offload.

The pressure was quickly back on OAs line and Iwan scored following a crafty grubber kick by Jack, pressured the covering fullback, allowed the turnover and Iwan’s close support to pick and dive over.

The final score followed a period of fantastic defence putting constant pressure on OA’s who kept trying to throw the ball wider and wider to their only threats. This resulted on Morgan scoring a fine interception try a minute before the final whistle.

Final score 35-10.

Let’s keep the winning ways at Barnet next weekend.

Many thanks to Martin Rayfield for the sports reporting duties this week and also kit washing - man of many talents! Appreciated.
Thank you to Anne-Marie Moody for helping serve the post match food and hope George is ok.

Best regards
Gareth and the rest of the team.