U13s continue fine form against Hertford

The Under 13 1st team were back in league action under the lights at Cheshunt AGP on Friday night. We welcomed Hertford to make the short journey down the A10 for this eagerly anticipated game.

After a week with really bad weather, which meant that for the first in Enfield history Coach John cancelled training, everyone was keen to watch and play some rugby!

Following a solid warm up, the teams were welcomed back on the pitch by both sets of parents. The game kicked off and was played at a very high tempo and in good spirits by both teams throughout.

Enfield opening the scoring on the night when fullback Fenton recovered a kick from Hertford and the ball was worked out to the wing and Archie used all of his pace and power to go over in the corner. Any thoughts of the floodgates opening at this stage were quickly dispelled as Hertford saw lots of the ball and rucked really well, which meant Enfield had to spend long periods of time defending. The first up tackling of the whole team was awesome throughout the game, and especially during this period of dominance by Hertford!

As the game grew, Enfield started to get a foothold and got their second score of the game, with some quick hands through the backline moving the ball to Benjy on the wing, who is still learning the game, but he used his blistering pace to score in the corner.

The rest of the first half played out scoreless, but with both teams played the game the right way, with the forwards running hard and the backs moving the ball out wide. Hertford attacked well all half with some last ditch try saving tackles by the Enfield team keeping them out.

At half time the messages were clear from the Enfield coaches: Enjoy the game, work hard and more scores would come.

With that, straight from the kick off, Archie was able to run the length of the pitch and score. The second half was played in the same way as the first, forwards working hard with and without the ball, and the backs moving the ball wide and the whole team defending well!

Enfield scored two further tries in the second half, with Benjy being the try scorer for both to complete a hat trick. Both tries followed the same pattern that the Enfield team had been working hard on all game: make the hard yards with the forwards, and that will create the space for the backs to score wide. And that they did on both occasions, with slick hands along the line giving Benjy space to beat the covering Hertford defence.

The final score finished up 25-0, and a good win for Enfield, who continue to grow as a team. We were able to score 5 try’s but perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the game was to keep a very good Hertford side to nil.

With the scores all coming from the backs, it could be easy to forget about the forwards. However they worked their socks off on the field all night in both attack and defence. Big shout outs go to Feliks who was everywhere throughout the whole game making tackles rucking and putting the hard work that usually goes unnoticed. Mattie had another massive game in the forwards, and was everywhere, hitting every ruck and maul, and disrupted lots of Hertford ball.

We are blessed in this Enfield team to have a backline and bench of players who have the skills, speed, power and ability to go the length of the pitch and score at anytime. Big shout outs go to Archie, who continued his impressive try scoring form, but also worked well in defence making tackles all game, and Benjy, for another impressive display, scoring 3 tries but also making 4 or 5 big tackles!

In the club house after the game, which is now becoming a bit of a tradition, the coaches picked Lenny from Hertford as our opposition man of the match. He was awesome all game and was everywhere. In return the Hertford coaches picked out Mattie in the forwards for putting in an awesome shift and being everywhere!

Thanks goes to Cheshunt RFC for allowing us to use their awesome club house and pitch.