While Hertford had the vast amount of possession over the course of the game, with the forwards retaining possession - excellent Datchworth jackaling at the breakdown slowed us down and stopped a supply of quick clean ball.

Our visitor's defence were up quick and applied pressure to our backs attacking line - all too often we were flat and taking the ball standing still and forcing handling errors. With a penalty providing a 3 point return for a very long period of pressure it was clear that points were going to be hard to come by.

A strong attack from Datchworth and a try in the corner gave Datchworth a slender lead and Hertford's backs were to the wall 3-5 down and nearly at the end of the first half.

Continued periods of Hertford possession still failed to breach Datchworth and our under-pressure backs made themselves easy to defend in attack by running sideways rather than fixing defenders and going forward - Datchworth drifted and Hertford's attacks were thwarted as they ran out of space and the touchline beckoned.

Ultimately two hard fought tries at either end of the second half saw us home - a forwards driving maul saw Tom Baker dot down for the first and William Howell crashed over from 15m out for the second to give Hertford a little breathing space with 4 minutes to go.

A hard-fought, well contested game and no quarter given by either side - Hertford now progress to the Finals Day at OAs on Sunday 29th April where Fullerians await.

Training will be at Stevenage this Wednesday 18:45-20:15

Sunday 18th March
This weekend and next are DPP weekends, so we will be down a number of players

Hertford & Stevenage have a fixture AWAY at Watford RFC, meet and KO times TBC

Those not selected will train at Hertford meet at 10am