Following a tight win last week, Hitchin Development’s team took the long drive to face Tring in the league. With a number of old faces pulling on the Hitchin shirt again, the boys were in a confident mood. However traffic meant that the team did not get to Tring until 15 minutes to kick off, with the referee already losing his patience with the side’s lateness.
So the game got underway with no Hitchin warm up at all! The game was almost a mirror image of the opening of the Finchley game, as Hitchin were straight under the pump, with the characteristically big Tring pack making some good strong runs. Hitchin did have an early moment of hope, with Michael Starling grounding the ball defiantly. The lack of warm up had clearly effected Starling as he was in fact on the 5m line, and the referee, slightly confused by the situation, penalised Hitchin. Hitchin failed to adapt to the referee early on, conceding 5 penalties in the 22 and eventually Tring broke the Hitchin line to score a converted try.
Hitchin got their hands on the ball after this and made a few good runs, but some mistakes again led to Tring camping on the Hitchin line, and the powerful Tring number 8 stormed over to take the score to 14-0. Hitchin were now however getting to grips with the game and started to do the simple things well. Simon Banner and Graham King won turnover after turnover, and managed to slow down the ball even if they didn’t turn the ball over. Kyle Hookway made a fantastic defence effort to deny Tring a third try, holding his man up over the line.
Alfie Birkett, on his Hitchin debut, bossed the game at fly half, and with the realisation that the Hitchin backs had the upper hand on their opponents, the ball started to filter wide, with Ashley Cochrane using his pace to get outside a defender and over in the corner. The difficult conversion was missed but the halt time whistle blew with Tring leading 12-5.
The second half got under way and was played at a ferocious pace. The second half was Hitchin’s half, with some huge displays across the board. The support play from Hitchin was fantastic and as the game went on, the team managed to put some phases together. It was Tring’s turn to feel the wrath of the referee, giving away 5-6 penalties on their own 5m line, and making a further 3 or 4 high tackles on the Hitchin players. Hitchin were patient though and after a clever little chip through from Birkett, Callum Shooter fell on the ball to get Hitchin’s second try under the posts. Birkett converted this one to take the score to to 12-14 to Tring.
The game was end to end for most of the second half, with Hitchin’s mistakes from tiredness giving Tring the foothold in the game. With about 15 minutes to go, Birkett nailed a difficult penalty from the sideline to give Hitchin a slim lead of a point.
Again the game mirrored last week, with Tring putting the pressure on in the last 10 minutes and Hitchin again starting to concede penalties. And so with the last play of the game, the Tring kicker who had been superb throughout the game, had the chance to win the game for the home side. The kick was missed and Hitchin for the second week in a row held on to win 15-14.
This was a real team performance with everyone playing for each other throughout. Some notable mentions for Gus King who again was an unmovable force in the front row. King and Banner who were fantastic in both attack and defence throughout the game. Alfie Birkett was impressive for his new team, and Drew Turner and Max Weatherhead were solid in both defence and attack.
After 2 wins in 2 weeks, the Hitchin side now face a cup semi-final next week, with the chance of winning something still a possibility.
Team Gus King, Andy Lockley, George Elleston, Michael Starling, Thomas de Sousa, Graham King, Callum Shooter, Simon Banner, Adam Howard, Alfie Burkett, Stewart Mcintosh, Andrew Turner, Ashley Cochrane, Max Weatherhead, Kyle Hookway
Subs Alistair Southward
Scores T: Callum Shooter (1), Ashley Cochrane (1)
C: Alfie Burkett (1)
P: Alfie Burkett (1)
Player(s) of Match 1. Alfie Burkett, 2. Graham King, 3. Simon Banner
The league: Herts Mddx Merit Table