Hatfield Humble Luton in nail-biting thriller

Hatfield Queen Elizabeth Rugby Club made it three wins in a row and continued their perfect start to the season with a 17-11 home victory against Luton’s second XV.

Luton were unbeaten before Saturday, winning their first three games of the season. They were a solid looking team and they were clearly going to use their size advantage over the lightweight Hatfield team. This worked in Luton’s favour when from the kick off they charged down the line, knocking Hatfield back, to score within the opening minutes of the game. They failed to convert.

HQE were clearly shaken by this dominant start, but captain George Stone called his players together and made sure they focused. At the restart, centre John Thompson charged down the catcher and made an impressive tackle. This was the start needed to re-energise the Hatfield team and after several minutes winger Charlie Gibbs broke though the line and scored for Hatfield. Fly half Owen Doyle missed the conversion.

This explosive start continued, but was let down by the performance of the referee who would not allow time for the game to grow and develop by blowing his whistle for every contentious issue and not letting it playing out. This led to frustration from both sides as there were penalties given away by both Luton and Hatfield.

One penalty for Hatfield was converted by Doyle and gave the home side the lead. It was at this point that Luton knocked on and created the first scrum. Despite giving away plenty of weight the Hatfield pack pushed Luton off the ball and the opposition pack crumbled under the pressure. The referee called the scrum to be reset and Hatfield once again dominated and the opposite front row collapsed. This was the first injury of the game and saw Luton have to go uncontested in the scrums due to the prop not being able to continue, which frustrated the Hatfield pack as they were so strong in the set pieces.

With the solid platform upfront the Hatfield backs were given freedom to run, but some wayward passing from veteran scrumhalf Toby Garrett saw Doyle struggling to use the space available.

The fly halfs traded penalties just before half time making it 11-8 to the home team at the break.

The second half was a stuttering affair, mainly due to the constricting way the referee was interpreting the laws of the game. So with penalties for both teams it was going to be a kicking affair.

Doyle was performing better than his opposite number with two completed penalties in the second half. The last was from the edge of the pitch and a fair distance out, when converted the opposition congratulated Doyle on his impressive kick, giving a final score of 17-11 to the home team and also the first defeat for Luton.

After the game, Captain George Stone commented: “This was a real test for the team today, and we delivered, we still need to work on our defence and discipline, but we can move forward – we have a really good shot at winning the league this year.”

Head coach Gary Phillips was also pleased, saying: “Our hard work in training is really starting to pay off. We knew how Luton were going to play and we were able to stifle them and play our game. There’s no reason we can’t compete at the top this season.”

Hatfield’s next fixture is on Saturday 07 October away to Fullerians 3rd XV.