Team – 1. Doug McGregor-Smith 2. Sean Maughan 3. Charlie Swerling 4. Harry Bradshaw 5. Kieran Booth 6. Charlie Bourne 7. Michael Everett 8. Kazeem Olayinka 9. Ben Harris 10. Ben Pothecary 11. Josh Fisher 12. Noah Jarvis (C) thirteen. Harry Stevens 14. MacKenzie South 15. Sammy Sinclair 16. Max Morphey 17. Liam Bruno 18. Michael MacKenzie Crooks.

Always a delight to welcome the players, officials, and supporters from Hertford. Having done the double on us last season they have found this season a real test in the early games. For Amersham, this match provided a great deal of opportunity to get back into winning ways. With Hertford also being in a similar league position the scene was set for a competitive and hard-fought match.
We welcomed Sean Maughan to the club and to our hooker role owing to the mighty Joe Batt having a sore limb. We also welcomed back big Charlie Bourne to the second row to hopefully add some ballast to the scrum and some height to the lineout. Ben Pothecary provided cover in the all-important standoff position after his wee brief trip away to Ealing RFC and back. Would he be refreshed after his time away? Finally, Michael MacKenzie Crooks was welcomed to the bench after scoring a hat-trick for the seconds against Beaconsfield 2s the previous weekend. A bigger test but one he was facing with confidence.

And so, to the action …… after 4 mins Sammy Sinclair from full back decided to take Hartford on with a blistering ‘Blair Kinghorn’ style attack weaving with comfort through a dozing Hertford defence. Missed conversion. Well deserved (5-0) lead. On 8mins Hertford equalise and then lead through a straightforward conversion (5-7). 14 mins Hertford extend lead with a second try following another successful maul. Converted (5-14). A&C respond well with more pressure and better possession. Harry Stevens steps up scoring A&C second try and conversion (12-14). Hertford again take the lead with another predictable and poorly defended maul – great conversion (12-21). Charlie Bourne with a near immediate response then sprints a good 50yds to score unopposed. The ground shook. Hertford keep things interesting with an unconverted try – Half Time (17-26)

Hertford continue to maul well, and A&C defend poorly opening second half try from Hertford (17-31). Doug McGregor-Smith at prop then rumbles over to close the deficit – converted by Harry (24-31) – all to play for. Herford again with no prizes for guessing scored another converted try unopposed maul to add spice to our day (24-36). Noah Jarvis then stepped up to score a well worked try on 72 mins to make matters interesting as the final whistle approached (31-33).
Final converted try from Hertford at the death – you guessed it another maul. (31-40)

A match played out by two teams deserving to be at the bottom end. Hertford quite one dimensional and A&C lacking toughness and tackling especially in relation to malls. We expect many of our injured back and we will go again.

This week a very warm welcome to Shelford and fresh opportunity to climb up this league.