Dunstable 10 Hitchin 17

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On a bright, crisp Sunday morning we got to see some of that champagne Rugby we’ve all been waiting for, after a good summer of hard work and training. It also seems to be clear that a late kick off seems to suit our lads, or at least a good 90 minute warm up!

Dunstable were a team of big lads and straight from the kick off put us under considerable pressure for the first few minutes. However we showed excellent defensive skills and soon cleared our lines to move play into their half. From the resulting line out Hitchin picked up possession and moved the ball to Callum Mac who kicked through for Billy to chase and punt forward, which Callum tracked to touch down and then convert.

After another 10 minutes of interchange in the midfield, with our lads showing much better handling and set piece skills we won a scrum just inside the Dunstable half, which again gave Callum Mac an opportunity to exploit the blindside and release Billy to set off on an excellent run only to be pushed into touch a few metres from the line. However a great lineout won by Andrew at the front allowed us to move the ball quickly to the other wing and then back again through all the phases to get Billy his try. 12:0 Hitchin after 20mins.

The first half efforts where then slightly sullied by Dunstable and their referee from the re start, with very obvious hands in a ruck which allowed them to break and score in the corner. 12:5 Hitchin (half time)

Thankfully this didn’t completely spoil the party as the lads came out in the second half determined to seal the win. Early highlights were some continued strong running from Edgar and Kieran in the centre and also some superb forward running by Edwin and Charlie. As a result we managed to work our way up to their 22, for Kieran to take a great crash ball and make 10 metres and take out 3 players and from the second phase Callum T picked up 10m out, from which position no one was going to stop him! Shortly afterward we had another great period of running and a terrific backs move to score but was denied yet again by a dubious decision that it was a forward pass!

Late in the day Dunstable ran in another try but the final score of 17:10 reflected a fair result. A good start to the season, which we need to follow up on again this week and keep that momentum going.