Captain -
Nigel Stanley

Manager -
Doug James

Harpenden see red…..and yellow and pink and green!

Harpenden 2xv were keen to get back to winning ways after the recent run of success and were quietly optimistic about their away trip to Enfield Ignations on Saturday.

Despite the staggered arrival of the Harpenden team and the ‘deep heat’ warm-up things started well. Playing into the wind and up the slope, the men in black put the home team on the back foot from the kick-off. Maybe, for once, people had listened to the team talk and had been motivated to play some hard open running rugby. Unfortunately words were not enough, the pressure could not be sustained and it wasn’t long before the home side were using the elements and the pink shirted Welsh referee to their advantage.

Enfield kept the ball very tight and there were few opportunities to unleash the youthful backline. Kicking from hand proved to be difficult and Freaky was unable to relieve the mounting pressure. The Hertfordshire men subsequently found themselves camped in their own 22 for the majority of the first half.

Having weathered the storm (at least in part), the frustration began to show when Harpenden were penalised for persistent infringement and apparent back chat. Charlie Cross paid the price and was sent between the uprights for a 10 minute breather. With the pack reduced to 7 this unsettled the away side and Captain ‘Elduardo’ Stanley was unable to stabilise the scrum from his new found position at Number 8. National hopes and expectation were high; could Stanley take advantage in the absence of Dallagio and Corey? Despite the local optimism, Stanley was soon reminded of his long forgotten physics lessons from school when he first experienced opposing forces of unequal measure. The home side capitalised on a weakened pack and came away with a five point advantage from broken play however failed with the conversion.

The away side managed to claw something back from the half with a well earned penalty from the hard work of the forwards. Freaky managed to convert the territory into three points making the score 5-3 at the break.

Following stern and measured words at half time from both new and senior members of the Harpenden 2XV management team (Branston Senior along with Dougie) the team commenced the second half with renewed optimism. Unfortunately for Harpenden the Enfield team talk was equally as positive and Enfield pushed hard in the opening five minutes.

The game started to deteriorate and it became very scrappy and tested the man in pink. After a slight altercation with the Enfield fly-half, both Tom Clark and the Enfield 10 found themselves spending 10 minutes in the bin. This wasn’t bad considering Clark was trying out his UN peace keeping role and ended up being punched three times in the face before being sent to the sin bin. Who said help thy neighbour?

Tensions began to rise further and Enfield soon lost another to the sin bin, this time the opposing no8. This made it two each for the game however unfortunately Harpenden were unable to capitalise on their one player advantage.

Harpenden managed to control their frustration despite Enfield’s desire to enter into unconventional rugby tactics of tripping and ‘dissing’. Unfortunately these went unnoticed by the referee and even the mildest players from Harpenden chose to pass comment onto the referee – obviously in a polite way.

Deep into the second half having conceded a further try and conversion, Bracey managed to break the backline from set piece however lacked the wheels to execute this fully. A pass back inside led to a number of phases before the ball was spun out wide. Unfortunately, the only width the ball received was Matt Peck! Somehow he managed to find himself between the outside backs and when faced with a four on one overlap he managed to kick the ball into touch. The only consolation for Harpenden was that Matt stubbed his toe in the process and was subsequently replaced on a stretcher with the help of the players and spectators on the adjacent three pitches.

Charlie Cross’s relationship with the referee deteriorated further when he was awarded a second yellow card for infringement and was subsequently red carded. What followed was a number of scraps breaking out as the game deteriorated.

Despite the disappointing defeat there were a number of stern performances. Chris Wilkinson was the stand out player as he put in numerous tackles around the pitch and filled in at flanker and hooker. Mike ‘Bullet’ Oxley played well on the wing and he was unfortunate not to score in the first half. There was also strong running from Branston Junior.

Better luck next time.

Team

Peck M, Cross C, Willis M, Lewis M (rep. Rickarty), Stranders, Clark T, Wilkinson C, N Stanley (Capt), Walker S, Cartmell, Oxley, Bracey, Cornthwaite, Hughes J (rep. Taf), Branston J