Hatfield  RFC:    17

Hackney RFC:    20

 

Hackney RFC sit top of the Herts Middlesex North 3 league after beating Hatfield in a tough close match at Roe Hill. The Griffins’ confidence was high following their recent run of results. However, no one in the Hackney squad could recall ever winning away in Hatfield meaning the London side knew they would have to raise their game to get a positive result.

 

Hackney looked to play the game in the right areas of the pitch and although they were playing in to a strong wind managed to string some good phases of play together. The Herts side gave the Griffins an early chance to take the lead with a penalty but Pete Grieves narrowly missed with his long range effort. It was not long until Hackney got their first try though with winger Tristan Wright scoring in the corner rounding of a clever backs move.

 

Hatfield were clearly up for this match and it was a much sterner test for the forwards then last weeks match against Cuffley, the Herts side used their pack to good effect and tested the Griffin’s defence throughout the game. In spite of this, Hackney’s second try came from a set play involving all the forwards, with Aussie no 8  John Tully smashing over from close range. Hackney’s third try of the game was the pick of the bunch and scored by centre Shaun Collins. Picking the ball up in his own half, Collin’s jinking run evaded Hatfield’s first line of defence before bamboozling their cover defence with his sidesteps and acceleration to score his third in try in two games.

 

Hatfield got on the score sheet shortly before half time when they took a penalty quickly and crashed through an unorganised Hackney defence to score. Having converted the try, Hatfield were reduced to 14 men when their tight-head prop was sin binned for an innocuous looking tackle deemed late by the referee. Hackney were able to put pressure on their scrum at the start of the second half and their numerical advantage paid off when Pete Grieves rounded off a strong run from Tully for the fourth try.

 

Things started to go wrong for the London side shortly after this. They lost both half backs to injury which meant the team had to be reshuffled with players playing out of position for much of the second half. The Griffins invited pressure on to themselves by making bad tactical decisions and losing their discipline. Hatfield sensed a chance to put pressure back on Hackney, choosing to keep the ball in the hands of their big pack and maul their way up the pitch. John Young and Nick Cartright were both sin-binned for infringements which gave Hatfield more of an advantage in the scrums and mauls. The Herts side scored two further tries but did not convert them allowing Hackney to hold on for their tenth league victory of the season.

 

Skipper Matt Clemens-Lary said after the game “We were well below par today and we did not execute our game plan in the second half. The most important thing was the result which keeps us on track in the league. We can work on improving our performance at training before what is a huge game next week at home to Borehamwood. ”

 

Hackney Griffins: J Williams, R Holgate, M Clemens-Lary, O Hart, J Young, M Whitlock, M Spencer, J Tully, C Fanning, J Moore, T Wright, S Collins, J Hardwick, J Davies, P Grieves. Reserves: N Cartright, O Addison, D Bates,