Cheshunt Rugby

By Jim Stanger

Sunday saw Cheshunt Under 16′s travel to play Dartfordians. Our hosts kicked off the 1st half. Reece received the kick and carried the ball well back into the oppositions half, before offloading to Daragh who also made ground before being tackled. For the 19th time this season Cheshunt’s Captain Connor collected the ball from the base of a ruck before side stepping Dartfordians defence and crossing the try line to give C’s an early lead. Ryan stepped up to the mark to successfully score the conversion. (0-7)

From the restart Dartfordians tried to apply some pressure and for the next 5min most of the play took place on the half way line, until C’s turned over a line out and Ryan carried the ball past the oppo defence to score C’s 2nd try of the day. (0-12). Once again Dartfordians pushed forward from the restart and a couple of missed tackles by C’s saw Dartfordians score (7-12). Some great defensive play by Alex, Will & Daragh saw Dartfordians kept away from C’s try line. However numerous small errors by C’s saw Dartfordians award penalties & scrums. Through out the match all C’s players made some great carries with the ball. Once again a quick pass from scrum half to Ryan saw him run in his 2nd try of the day and with him also successfully converting C’s lead (7-19). The match continued to be played between the 22m’s until C’s were awarded a penalty in Dartfordians half. The ball was past out to the backs and Will received the ball at Outside Centre to score C’s 4th try of the day (7-26) From the restart C’s seemed to switch off momentarily allowing Dartfordians to apply pressure in the 22m. Finally breaking thru to score (14-26)

Cheshunt kicked off the 2nd half and straight away applied huge pressure, with the ball being moved from one sided of the pitch to the other, until Reece broke thru to score his 1st of the day and C’s 5th. Once again Ryan stepped up to the mark to convert the try (14-31) sadly not for the first time during the match C’ switched off and allowed Dartfordians to come straight back at them to score (19-31). With Daragh’s kick off pining the opposition in their own half Cheshunt made a huge effort to stop Dartfordians scoring anymore points and a scrum just outside Dartfordians 10m saw Jordan pick & drive from the base of the scrum to cross the line, with Ryan once again successfully converting the try (19-40)

C’s continued to make some great runs with the ball and quick passing allowed the ball to be moved wide, which saw Charlie score wide out on the left wing. (19-45). With Dartfordians forwards becoming tied, C’s started to made huge impact in the scrums. Not for the first time C’s pinned their opposition back in their own 5m before Reece collected the ball from the base of a ruck to score his 2nd and Cheshunt’s 8th try of the day. Final score (19-52)

Joe, Aaron, Liam, Charlie, Antony, Jordan, Reece, Jed. Connor (Capt.), Daragh, Ryan, Will, Cameron, Alex, Dan, Darius, Z, Duncan

By Jim Stanger

Cheshunt U16’s played host to Ruislip ‘B’ on Sunday. Following torrential rain the pitch was sure to cut up.

Cheshunt Kicked Off and immediately turned over a Ruislip Ruck. With Cheshunt’s team now really bonded as one, C’s pressurised at almost all plays.

With poor conditions, handling errors were always going to be on the list today. However Ruislip showed how well they were drilled at scrums and didn’t lose one scrum all day. However some quick ball and powerful runs by C’s, saw Ruislip pinned well back into their own half most of the first half. As pitch conditions worsened you would of thought the forwards would of loved keeping the ball, however it was C’s backs that continued to find space and run with the ball.

20 min into the match say Ruislip awarded a line out. Jordan pressurised his opposite number which meant a poor pass. This was all Connor needed to kick the ball over Ruislip line before touching down to score his 18th try of the season.

C’s continued to pressurise Ruislip and a crafty clearance kick & chase down by Will enabled Reece to collect the ball from a maul and score C’s 2nd try of the day (10 – 0)

With Cheshunt taking a 10 – 0 lead into half time Ruislip kicked off the 2nd half.

Straight from the start C’s backs made some great powerful runs with the ball. Cheshunt were awarded a scrum deep into Ruislip’s half. A great Blindside move saw Jordan break thru o score C’s 3rd try of the day. With Ryan sadly still missing the conversions, the score remained at 15 – 0.

With condition now really getting poor, Cheshunt’s penalty count continued to rise, however Ruislip failed to take advantage of some sloppy play by Cheshunt.

C’s on the other hand were awarded a rare penalty on Ruislip’s 5m line which saw Connor take a kick Tap &  Go before offloading to Robert who crashed thru Ruislip’s defence to score under the posts. WELL DONE ROBERT! Great performance in your new position and more importantly Robert’s 1st try for Cheshunt.

Ryan stepped up to convert the try and C’s lead the match 22 – 0

In the last dying minutes of the match saw a loose ball pop out to Connor who offloaded a kick to Cameron out on the wing. Cameron’s pass and power was to much for 3 of Ruislip’s defenders and with Cheshunt’s 5th try of the match saw them win 27 – 0 .

Z, Aaron, Joe, Liam, Antony, Reece, Jordan, Jed, Connor, Daragh, Ryan, Robert, Cameron, Charlie, Will

By Jim Stanger

Sunday saw Cheshunt play Tring in wet & windy conditions.

Cheshnut Under 16 v Tring B

Tring Kicked Off and from the start tried to keep the ball away from Cheshunt’s pack. With neither side dominating most of the play took place in the middle of the pitch. Until a lucky bounce saw Tring rum in the 1st try.

C’s continued to use there big Pack to try to dominate & tire Tring, whilst Cheshunt’s backs continued to run through their play, whenever they had the ball.

Sadly a lack of concentration saw Cheshunt miss a few tackles, which allowed Tring their 2nd try of the day.

A great re-start kick by Ryan enabled Connor time to chase Tring down and charge down a defensive kick. Some great plays by Daragh, Ryan & Roberts saw Cheshunt’s backs keep the play in the middle of the pitch.

Cheshunt were awarded a scrum on the half way line and a good ‘box kick’ allowed Cameron to run down the Tring defence. Connor collected the loose ball and with the support of Cheshunt’s pack was driven over the line to score C’s first points of the day (18 min). Play continued mostly in the middle of the pitch until Darius & Aaron made a couple of breaks, which saw ‘Z’ take the ball over the line, only to have the try disallowed by the referee (tut, tut Richard)

HALF TIME

With some positional changes and the introduction of Cheshunt’s new play Dan onto the pitch, Cheshunt kicked off the 2nd half. With the muddy conditions meant ball handlings errors would occur which in turn saw the number of scrums increase.

10min into 2nd half saw Tring try to kick out of their own half, only to have Connor charge the ball down before returning it back under the posts to score both his & Cheshunt’s 2nd try of the day. Ryan stepped up and successfully converted to give Cheshunt 12 points.

Tring now began to pile on the pressure, but Cheshunt continued to play steady rugby even in the poor conditions and when Will broke thru Ting’s defence it seemed another try was on the score sheet. Sadly even with C’s pack assisting him, Will was unable to get the ball down.

As the pitch continued to get more and more muddy limps started to ache and mistakes started to happen. With the referee finally blowing the final whistle Tring ended the game 24 -12 winners.

Darius, Aaron, Joe, Liam, Z, Duncan, Antony, Reece, Jed, Connor, Daragh, Robert, Charlie, Ryan, Will, Cameron, Alex, Dan

By Jim Stanger

Sunday saw Cheshunt U16’s visit Saracens ‘B’ in their 5th League fixture of the season. Following on from the previous 2 league victories C’s were more than confident and kicked off the match in very windy conditions. Once again with SKY Sports in attendance (Lee with his camcorder), Cheshunt went immediately on the attack. Using some great pop work by the Forwards and the backs maintaining quick ball.

Cheshunt Under 16 v Saracens

Cheshunt pinned Saracens in the own half, which meant Sarries time after time where forced to kick out of defence to try to gain ground. However C’s continued to apply immense pressure onto the opposition and finally Sarries conceded a penalty in the own 10m. Connor took a quick Tap & Go penalty to break thru their defence and cross the line to score the first points of the match. With the high winds Ryan sadly was unable to convert the points.

With no improvement to the windy conditions C’s reframed from kicking and kept ball in hand even when clearing their own lines. Sarries continued to kick over and eventually where awarded a penalty in Cheshunt’s 5m line. Sarries took their opportunity and successfully converted their try to lead 7-5.

Cheshunt restarted the match by kicking deep and Sarries tried to adopt C’s tactics of running the ball out of trouble, only to be caught by Cheshunt’s fast defence. This meant that the ball was kept well away from Cheshunt’s own try line. Great runs  by almost the entire Cheshunt team set the tone for a fast paced match and with the luxury of an additional Prop it meant that C’s were able to keep fresh legs on the pitch. With this added bonus Cheshunt kept the ball live and continued to move the play from one side of the pitch to the other. A Ruck on Sarries 5m line saw ‘Z’ handed the ball and our Tight Head Prop drove over the line to score Cheshunt 2nd try of the day.

Straight from Sarries re-start Ryan collected the ball and returned deep back into Sarries own half. Quick offloads to Reece and Cameron saw Cameron score Cheshunt’s 3rd try and his 1st try for Cheshunt, with Ryan successfully converting the try Cheshunt went into half time leading 17 – 7

Sarries kicked off the 2nd half and immediately it was noticeable that they had adopted Cheshunt’s technique of keeping ball in hand rather than kicking over. However C’s were more than a match to each attend made by Sarries and in fact Sarries hardly broke into Cheshunt’s 22m through out the entire 2nd half.

A ruck on Sarries 22m line saw Connor spin the ball out wide to Charlie on the wing who ran the ball in to score Cheshunt’s 4th try of the day and more importantly secure a well deserved Bonus point.

At this point Cheshunt knew they had the win in the bag but at no time did they lose concentration or show any disrespect to Sarries, who are always a dangerous opponent and who continued to take the game to C’s. Due to the high amount of possession that Cheshunt had in the match it did however mean that Sarries were awarded quite a few Scrums. However this was no major problem as both Connor (Scrum Half) & Reece (Open Side Flanker) repeatedly caught the Sarries Scrum Half in possession of the ball.

Further quick ball saw Cheshunt start to take total control of the match with Darius, Jordan, Reece & Robert to name a few making some great power runs with the ball.

As the match drew to a close, Sarries applied some pressure and pushed Cheshunt back towards their own 22m. Connor cleared the Ruck with a long distance Box Kick, which was helped on its way by Cameron’s knee. Daragh ran onto the loose ball to score Cheshunt 5th try of the day. In the dying moments of the match Jordan was sadly denied a try after the referee declared his made a double movement. 

Darius, Aaron, Joe, Liam, Z, Duncan, Antony, Reece, Jordan, Connor, Daragh, Robert, Charlie, Ryan, Will, Cameron