After a great pre-season with numbers exceeding 40 at training and fitness with new coach Pidge going well (and quite surprisingly enjoyable) Welwyn’s 2nd Team took to the field in 3 pre-season friendlies.

Luton Away
The first fixture saw Welwyn face Luton 2nd team in a rare Friday night ‘under the flood lights’ fixture. This was the first outing for a relatively new look second team which saw a club debut for Chris West, first senior appearance for Joe Greer and the return of some of our University graduates.

The game was played in 4 quarters which allowed for interchanges giving first team coach Garfy a chance to see what the 2nd team had to offer. He was not left disappointed!

Welwyn played the patterns well and despite multiple interchanges continued to do so throughout the match. Welwyn won 31-15 setting the standard for the remaining pre-season games.

Weston Home
Following on from Luton, Welwyn played village side Weston at home. With 3 matches at home Welwyn still managed to bring a total of 6 substitutes, including lending Tom Griffiths (thanks for stepping up) putting a Western shirt on due to injury.

The substitutes interchanged with Welwyn 1st XV, again allowing the coaching team to see what some players could offer. The second team fixture also saw another club debut for Lee Jenkins, Ross Ryan returning from a lengthy injury and Yourgos Alexander & PJ returning from “retirement”.

Welwyn ran away with the result being 52-7, tries coming from a total of 8 difference scorers including Chris West, PJ & Harry De-Lieto to name a few. Man of the Match Henry Fee.

Another great result but more importantly an excellent team effort!

Chingford Away
With a last minute cancellation from Stevenage, Welwyn were on the lookout for a replacement fixture. This saw a change of plan with the 2s playing away rather than at home as had been planned. Great work by fixture secretary Len Cleary in finding a fixture so late in the day.

Welwyn travelled with a strong XV but, due to a lot of unavailability, no substitutes. Adding to this Chingford 3s had multiple subs available. Welwyn took on this challenge to test their fitness levels in the last pre-season game.

Another strong performance with a few areas to work on saw Welwyn win 43-0 with tries coming from skipper Burno, TJ, prop Cam Patey, PJ, Harry and Liam Scofield grabbing 2.

To summarise Welwyn 2nd team had a fantastic pre-season scoring a total of 126 points and conceding only 22. Due to league restructure Welwyn were moved up to Merit Table 1 and will face Hemel Hempstead on Saturday 16th September with every confidence in a strong performance.

Burno