Cheshunt Rugby

By Jim Stanger

Cheshunt travelled to Woodford for a friendly fixture.

C’s kicked off with Woodford immediately returning the ball back deep into Cheshunt’s half. With a very vocal Reece starting early for the day, there was no way Woodford we keep their cool. Then again with Reece constantly shouting I doubt Cheshunt did either. With only a couple of minutes on the clock Woodford had already tested Cheshunt’s defence but to no avail. With Connor playing his usual kicking game on numerous occasions he successfully kicked clear of our 22m line.

With just 5 min on the clock both Forwards & backs combined with Jakk, Ryan & Harry just to name a couple all working well to release Connor down the Wing. With Jordan in support allowed the ball to be off loaded and Jordan scored the first try of the day. (0-5) Once again Woodford started strong and pinned C’s back in the own half and just a couple of missed tackles saw them score (5-5) Once again C’s kicked off and Woodford simply returned the ball back into Cheshunt’s half. Daragh relieved the pressure on Cheshunt by running from deep in our own half into Woodford territory. For a majority of the 1st half Woodford kept Cheshunt pinned back until quick ball saw Connor once again released. With Harry supplying support this time, gave Woodford something to think about, but this time Connor took the ball over the line. The game continued to be played in the middle of the field with Daragh, Harry & Ryan making some great runs from deep, sadly all defended by Woodford. Not for the first time this season saw Cheshunt’s penalty count start to creep up.

Woodford kicked off the 2nd half and once again applied pressure to Cheshunt. However this is something C’s are very used to and happily soaked up the pressure of numerous attacks from Woodford with each and every player defending the line. Messy scrums from both sides saw the referee having to reset the scrum on many occasions.

Even with Cheshunt conceding penalties on their own 5m line Woodford still could not break thru the line. Woodford continued to apply as much pressure as possible which obviously led to ‘handbags’ being thrown. With both teams evenly matched this was not going to be an easy win. With only 8 mins left on the clock saw Cheshunt awarded a scrum just in their own half. Connor received the ball, broke thru the defence and scored C’s 3rd try of the day. This only heightened the tension between the 2 teams and with just minutes to go tempers flared once again when Woodford’s Flanker held onto Aaron (Scrum Half) in a scrum. This led to 3 yellow cards with both Aaron & Woodford’s flanker being yellow carded as well as a hot tempered Woodford winger.

The match finished with Cheshunt winning 5-17

Tries – Connor (2), Jordan   Conversion – Ryan

By Jim Stanger

Sunday saw Cheshunt U17’s kick off their season with a friendly match against local rivals Enfield Ignations. As in previous matches there is always a good bit of banter between the teams.

Unfortunately for Cheshunt, the season hasn’t got off to a good start with squad numbers, with one or two injuries and a couple of players not getting back into the mood of playing rugby, C’s were therefore only able to field 15 men. Unlike Enfield who seemed to turn up with every 16 year old from Enfield.

Straight from the KO, Cheshunt’s big forwards showed their power with Joe, Z & Liam all carrying the ball well into contact (Summer training seems to have worked) keeping Enfield pinned back in their own half. On the 10 minute, not for the first time by our boys a simple mistake allowed Enfield to break free and return the ball 3/4 the length of the pitch to lead the match 0-5.

Soon after the restart Cheshunt failed to take full advantage of a penalty in front of the posts and decided to try to run the ball in. However on the 16 minute once again C’s were awarded a penalty in front of the posts and after some direct intervention by the coaches, Ryan stepped up to kick the penalty (3-5).

Not long after, Dan took both a knock to the head & leg and was forced off the pitch, leaving C’s with just 14 players on the pitch.  It therefore seemed obvious that Enfield would then be able to take full advantage of the extra man for the remaining 60 minutes together with numerous sub’s of their own to dominate the game. However this was not to be the case and C’s knuckled down to produce some truly fantastic rugby C’s were awarded a scrum on the 55th minute in Enfield’s half. With the entire team playing as one the ball was finally carried over the try line by Antony to score C’s first try of the season and to take Cheshunt’s lead to 8-5. Ryan once again stepped up to successfully score the conversion to give Cheshunt a 10-5 lead.

5 minutes later Cameron intercepted a wayward pass and ran the entire length of the pitch to score Cheshunt’s second try of the day, which was once again successfully converted by Ryan to take Cheshunt’s lead to 17-5.

However it was at this point that Cheshunt’s 14 men began to tire as Enfield fully utilised the large squad they had to rotate players and managed to run in to further try’s to finish the match on 17-17.

TEAM

Liam, Aaron, Z, Joe, Daragh, Reece, Jordan, Antony, Will, Alex, Ryan, Harry, Cameron, Dan, Nick.

POINTS

Tries  - Antony, Cameron, Penalty  - Ryan, Conversion - Ryan (2)