It’s amazing that all of the boys wear a shirt and tie at school every day, but the excitement levels of donning a Cheshunt RFC tie was easy to see on all of the boys faces.

Having our first league match without quality players like Archie, William, Bowie and Kaiden was a blow, especially as a result of football injuries!!! Thank Christ that Webb Ellis picked that ball up all those years ago and created a glorious game of Rugby.

Coming out of the changing rooms as a team, Cheshunt Under 13’s looked and acted like a team ready to play some serious rugby. With George being captained he kept the boys disciplined through the warm up and we entered the kick off ready to play.

The first 15 minutes saw some great effort from all the players, especially playing up the notorious Cheshunt RFC hill. Some Cheshunt Old Boys (mainly Adrian Clarke) were telling tales of how the hill is always a 3 to 4 try advantage in a half, and for the first part we managed to hold off to a close match with some outstanding tries scored by Hadley.

But then the cloud come over and Letchworth scored a try into the dip of the hill, our boys heads dropped. They started bunching and we saw an onslaught of tries against us. The 3-4 try advantage with that hill was taken full advantage of and the whistle for half time couldn’t come soon enough.

Grouping the boys together, their heads were low, motivation was down and they looked demoralised. But with some rallying encouragement from the coaches, getting into their heads that they could turn the game round the cloud lifted and the boys responded well to the coaches war cry for effort, determination and discipline.

Within the first minute superstar Hadley had scored a try and the boys were on fire.

Closely followed by two tries by Kai, and then a burst through from our loose head prop David smashing it over the line.

Newcomer to the team Ronnie had a great game today, with some strong running with the ball, creating gaps and off loading. It’s hard to imagine the team without the new boys Ronnie, Jack, Reuben and Jonty.

The boys rallied together amazingly and the atmosphere with parents was electric. This is how we play rugby, this is how a team comes back from an onslaught of tries against the hill, this is what the fitness sessions had been preparing us for.

George picked up an awesome play and scored a lovely try that was disallowed due to a potential knock on identified by the opposition coach to the referee. This try will be one that is debated over many pints over the future, with the VAR replay in circulation and shown back over and over in slow motion. Some say it was a knock on, some say it wasn’t. Either way it doesn’t really matter, as, if we hadn’t have let in all the tries in the first half, we wouldn’t need to debate it.

Our wingers Jonty and Harrison had an awesome game today, with some solid defending, great running and superb rucking out on the wings, holding the fort until the rest of the team arrived.

No one is quite sure who is quicker between twins Louie and Kai, we will maybe need to settle it on Thursday at fitness training, but either way the boys are on fire this season and its great watching them pick the ball up and accelerate off.

With big hitters Clayton and Harry, we were punching holes into the defence, with excellent rucking from Jack, Freddie and Reuben. We were winning rucks and mauls and allowing the ball to get out to the backs, where some magic happened with Blake, Ailbe and George running some great moves, allowing powerhouse Hadley to burst with effort and make another 3 tries.

With a powerhouse like we have, and strength in depth with power packs like Sean ready on the side line, once the fitness level increases, we will have the best forwards in the league, ready to win rucks and mauls and pass to our superstar backs.

Today we saw a true spirited game of rugby from Cheshunt Under 13’s, with a comeback second half, that if we can sustain that level of effort and skill for the full match, will see us succeed in the future.

8-10, 8-9, 9-9, 9-10? Who cares. The boy’s faces at the end said it all, teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship is what rugby is all about and we had that in abundance today.