Hatfield Hammer Hapless Hendon

Hatfield Queen Elizabeth Rugby Club made it back-to-back league wins after a comprehensive victory over Hendon Rugby Club’s second XV on Saturday 23 September.

HQE dominated from start to finish to claim the second victory of the new season in emphatic style with a 38-12 win over their long-standing rivals.

HQE arrived at Hendon’s Greenland’s Lane Ground and were fired up from before the start when the Hendon captain came over to Hatfield’s captain Rob Jack, standing in for the absent George Stone, and explained that the scrums would have to be uncontested as they had arrived without the full quota of props.

Hatfield began strongly and dominated in the forwards. HQE soon found themselves inside Hendon’s 22, and won a scrum. 44-year-old Scrum half Toby Garrett rolled back the years and picked the ball up from the back of the scrum, saw a gap and squeezed himself through to go over for HQE’s first score of the day, the conversion was missed.

Hatfield remained dominant but both prop Alfie Aries, and winger Charlie Gibbs, were withdrawn from the game due to injures. This gave Hendon some hope of taking control of the game, but a wayward kick fell into the hands of Rob Jack who broke through several lines of defence to score under the posts. With the conversion completed HQE were 12-0 ahead.

Hatfield seemed to switch off after this score and Hendon pushed forward. Simple mistakes by HQE saw the home team given penalties and just walk down the pitch. Ten yards from the try line Hendon’s prop took the ball and a missed tackle by prop David Rawlings saw them power over the line for their first score of the match, which they converted to make it 12-7.

From the kick off the ball was knocked into touch by Hendon for a Hatfield line out. Hatfield had been struggling for consistent jumpers, so called in centre Niall Easdale to jump. He caught the ball and the forwards pushed to gain the advantage, the ball went through the hands and when fly half Owen Doyle, passed to Rob Jack he broke through again to score his second try of the day. Doyle then converted, which was to be the last kick of the half, giving 19-7 score in Hatfield’s favour.

Almost straight from the kick off, Hatfield got the ball out to the backs and winger Jago Penrose broke through several weak tackles to score under the posts, which was once again converted.

At this point in the game, rather than killing it off, HQE relaxed and took their foot off the throats of their rivals and let them back in the game. Silly mistakes gave Hendon a string of penalties and this ill-discipline saw the away team marched down the pitch by the referee.

At this point Hendon took their advantage and scored, putting them back in the game at 26-12.

This seemed to shake Hatfield out of their slumber and they once again showed their dominance over their rivals.

The ball once again fell to Rob Jack who along with Easdale and winger Jonno Spreckley took advantage of an overlap for Rob Jack to score again. The conversion was missed.

This looked to be the final score until the last play of the day when Owen Doyle twisted the knife into HQE’s north London rivals and broke away to score under the posts and then convert him with the last play of the game. The game finished 38-12.

Stand in captain and man of the match Rob Jack said after the game: “After the nervous win last week it was good to back it up in style here. We were switched on from the start and kept pushing the full 80 minutes,” I’m proud of how the boys worked together as a team, we’re moving in the right direction.

Coach Gary Phillips was slightly more reserved in his appraisal. “We worked hard today, and we’ve improved since the start of the season, but we need to stay switched on. We still need to work on elements of our game, but we’ve now got a solid base to build on.”

Hatfield’s next fixture is on Saturday 30th September home at Roe Hill to Luton’s second XV.