MATCH REPORT: Hertford 15-10 Sidcup

After the game, Head coach Kanwaijit Basra said his side need to start picking up bonus points if they want to challenge for the top two.

“It’s the best we’ve defended all season at the end,” said Basra. “The will to win from all the boys was unbelievable.

“There were a lot of tired and battered bodies at the end. It was pretty phenomenal.

“It was real backs to the wall stuff.

”We didn’t touch the ball for the first 20 minutes. They kept possession really well and put us under huge pressure.

“After that we started to get back into the game. It was very stop start, we heard a lot of the referee’s whistle.

“I was quite baffled by some of the decisions.

“At half-time I felt we lacked a bit of energy in terms of being first to the scrum and lineout.

“It was quite a gruelling game, the pitch was very heavy and they really came at us.

“I said we needed to up our intensity and we did that.

“We’ve lost games like that in the pas,t so it’s great credit to the boys.

“But there’s still a lot to work on. We want to be better, but Sidcup really came at us.

“I’ve got nothing but admiration for them and it was a good game to watch.”

Hertford travel to top of the table Wimbledon this weekend.

“We’re going to the lion’s den and we’ll chuck everything at them,” promised Basra.

“We’re going to take it to them right from the word go, and are really looking forward to going there.

“They are beatable and if we want to be challenging at the end of the season we need to winning games like that.”

Sidcup took an early 7-0 lead with a converted try in the fifth minute having piled on the pressure and going through the phases.

“It was a very well executed try,” said Basra. “They went through around ten phases before scoring and they got the conversion as well.”

Hertford had to wait until just before the break before they went over the whitewash, with Ben Lloyd spotting a gap off the back of a scrum to score. He duly added the extras to level the score.

“He dummied two defenders and went straight through to score to the right of the posts,” said Basra.

Lloyd then slotted over a penalty to make it 10-7, but the visitors restored parity with three points of their own.

Hertford had a let off when a Sidcup player knocked on after crossing the try line.

“The player came across and he should have scored all day long – he dived over the line but Michael Sargent tackled him and managed to dislodge the ball.

“It was just before half-time and that would have put them ahead so it was an absolutely fantastic tackle.”

The hosts made a barnstorming start to the second half and were rewarded with a trademark try from Michael Allan on 50 minutes.

“We went through through a lot of phases, and Michael had a lot to do going from one end to the other end, then through the middle.

“We spun the ball wide and he had a couple of defenders to beat, but skipped down the touchline and scored a cracking try in the left hand corner.”

Hertford edged to victory despite a yellow card for Stuart Smart – a team offence for deliberate offside.