The Mighty B’s v Hertford B (30 - 30)

On a pleasant but blustery sunny December day, the Mighty B’s welcomed a strong Hertford RFC B team to King Georges. The Hertford team were very keen arriving at 10am to warm up and looked like they had three or four very big units in their squad. With a few absentees due to winter bugs we had no B team subs so had to call on Berty, Alfie, MaxM and Ed from the A’s to provide cover on the bench.

From the kick off and no doubt fuelled up on advent calendar chocolate, The Mighty B’s took the challenge straight to Hertford putting them under massive pressure. Our defensive line and fast press were a thing of beauty, the Hertford players looked like rabbits in headlights faced with the marauding monsters charging straight at them with flames of desire in their eyes. The Hertford pack were very large with one player particularly large. Little did the Hertford pack know that they were about to be introduced to “THE PILLARS OF HERCULES” (MaxW and SebS), the intimidating face of the The Mighty B’s scrum. Only this time the “Pillars of Hercules” were joined in the front row by Jacob at Hooker who had dropped down from the A’s. The Scrum formed, and the Hertford front row got to see for the first time that day the six eyed, three headed monster that was about to make the next 25 mins of their lives a misery. The ref brought the scrums together and called CROUCH, BIND, SET and then BOOOOOM! Like two tectonic plates driving into one another, the front rows met. The Hertford 9 put the ball into the scrum, cue the “SURGE” from the “Pillars of Hercules”, the ball immediately appeared at the back of the Hitchin scrum under Joel @ Number 8’s feet and Freddie expertly provided Hugo with quick ball. Hugo made a nice flat pass to Jax who showed good pace running in what would be the first of four first half tries.

Our second try came from SebS taking up first phase penalty ball sucking in the Hertford pack, the ball was cleanly presented with Freddie yet again producing super-fast ball for Hugo at 10 to initiate a move down the large blind side. Hugo popped to Joel “The Calpol kid” Hampson who crashed through the Hertford defence to score a great try.

At Scrum-time the Hertford pack quivered with fright whilst under the glare of the Mighty six eyed monster. Each time the “Surge” would come on and the ball would appear at Joel’s feet. Hertford did not win a single scrum in the first half. Four of the six first half scrums taken against the head, Jacob’s Go-Go Gadget Leg working in perfect synchronicity with the mighty surge. Starved of ball there was nothing the Hertford team could do but face the relentless attack of the Mighty B’s. Hertford did manage to score a lucky try when their Gigantor in the centres who looked like he could be the son of the 1990’s ITV Gladiator “Hunter” managed to strip the ball from George who had just done well to take in a high ball and burst forwards. “Son of Hunter” was left almost unopposed to run in Hertford single try of the first half.

The Mighty B’s pack were the most dominant we have ever seen them, Freddie Rowsell made sure we capitalised on this by providing good, clean, quick ball from scrum half. Hugo at 10 showed maturity in some of his decision making some good kicks with the first half tail wind. Our kicks were allied with a great chase from the back line and our loose forwards Ollie, Ishan and Joel who caused mayhem in the Hertford ranks. Having said that we murdered two or three great scoring opportunities in the first half by not using two or three man overlaps. We need to work on how best to capitalise on the opportunities we create. Too many times players failed to draw their man and give the pass. This is covered on the first page of “Rugby for Dummies” so we should be experts at this by now. Something to work on in training.

Frustrated, the Hertford players played a little dirty from time to time. When SebS took the ball on the charge off a penalty, the largest player in the Hertford pack decided to launch himself at Seb with a blatant no arms body charge. The force of the impact caused a 10 mins delay on all trains in and out of Kings Cross. The ref immediately blew and awarded Hitchin a penalty and to huge credit Seb bounced straight up and got back in position. The scene was reminiscent of Tyson Fury getting up from the canvas after being put down by Deontay Wilder. Like the look on Deontay Wilders face, the Hertford players faces told a story “is there nothing that can stop these Mighty Hedgehogs of Hitchin?”. The challenge deserved a card of some colour especially following the ref’s pre-match team talk where he made it clear he was not afraid of sanctioning foul play. Seb bouncing straight back up probably saved “Hagred of Hertford” from an early shower. With the B’s dominance, it was clear the Ref had decided he was going to go into “Equalizer mode” and was going to do all he could to help Hertford compete.

Jacob scored our third try following a decent kick / chase from the team before Ishan scored a great try with a great Jackal and then powering through the Hertford defence handing off like players like he was swatting flies.

At half time The Hertford coaching team asked to make the scrums non-competitive, apparently because they had inexperienced players in the front row (that old chestnut). With the referee in Equalizer mode, the wind now behind Hertford and The Mighty B’s biggest weapon (The Scrum) now taken away from them we knew the second half was going to be a challenge.

Whether it was complacency following such a dominant first half or general fitness the intensity wasn’t quite where it needed to be for most of the second half and Hertford took their opportunities. With more ball to play with from the uncontested scrums and using their big men to crash up the pitch, the Mighty B’s were under a lot of pressure. Hertford managed to score some quick tries. It was disappointing as we had plenty of opportunities to stop “Son of Hunter” and his pals, but our tackle technique was poor, going in way too high to be effective. It goes to show the basic skills are still extremely important, we must get our tackle height down and be more committed and organised in defence. The Mighty B’s did eventually manage to apply some pressure on Hertford and against the wind work their way up the pitch. When Hertford had to kick out from their own line the ball went straight to Jacob (could have been Dexter) who with a great solo effort ran the ball straight back in for our fifth try. Hertford scored twice again with runs that should have been stopped on numerous occasions but for poor defensive organisation and tackling technique to take the lead 30-25.

One of the great attributes of this Mighty B’s team is the never say die attitude. The B’s rallied again and again to fight their way up the pitch. We created some fantastic scoring opportunities but unfortunately suffered from a few bouts of “Try fever” with players trying too hard to get over the try line themselves when they would have been better looking for support. Following us coughing up the ball on the Hertford line when we should have scored, Hertford tried to run the ball out, Ollie managed to turnover the resultant ruck and drove his lengthy frame over the line to cap off a great performance and level the score. The referee then with the scores tied could not blow his whistle fast enough. .

Final score
Hitchin B 30
Hertford B 30

Thank you for Max Moran providing some cover at the end of the match and Berty, Alfie and Ed for turning up early just in case you were needed. Top Squadmanship!

I can say with complete confidence that if the scrums were competitive the whole match and we had taken more of the great opportunities we created, “The Mighty B’s” would have decimated Hertford B, traditionally one of Hertfordshire’s strongest clubs. The first half performance had everything and was a joy to watch. What is really nice to see and gives the Coaching team a lot of pride is to see how every member of the team is developing. So far this season we have seen massive personal improvement across the whole Mighty B’s squad. Lets keep it going in 2024.

Parents, please make sure all the players watch the video back and self-critique their performance looking for things they could do better. The video highlights that there are lots of things we still need to work on, most of them are basic skills which we can easily cover in training in the new year:

Fitness, Fitness, Fitness!
Tackle technique, must get lower and dominate
Organising our defence (needs better communication/more leaders on the pitch)
Backs need to draw their man and give the pass
We butchered two or three Sonic moves, we need to practice these more
Quickly organising our defence when we concede a penalty
Quickly organising our attack when we are awarded a penalty
Chasing a kick off – needs to be more organised and committed
Do not get Try fever!!!!!