18 months of no rugby and as a club we managed to have 4 senior sides and a colts squad all ready and buzzing for the return of rugby and still had over 20 unavailable.

A youthful Stockwood park 2s made the trip up the m1 to billing road to face the dads army.

We had some tough decisions in selection with great numbers turning out during the return to rugby programme.

A good solid warm up and spirits were high to hit the ground running. A emotional pre game speech from our captain and vice captain and the side were ready for the long awaited return. Receiving the ball going downhill, we started eager but lacked direction. Knock ons and poor decision making cost us throughout the whole game.

Stockwood park came to play, strong upfront and pacey out the back. Poor decision making at the breakdown led us to being out numbered in defense.

When we had ball in hand we carried well but were guilty of over committing at the breakdown which led to minimal options to string phases together.

Stockwood parks points came from our mistakes and not reacting to quick penalties. That being said we wanted to play and just seemed to be over keen at times and had a lack of communication and structure in attack.

Ash Young threatened going forward from the no8 position scoring a hat trick of tries.

Kieran Murdie solid at the breakdown, carrying well and a constant threat and a deserved man of the match performance.

Lots of positives and lots to work on at training. Players attitudes and heads didnt drop for 80 mins, great numbers and dads army will roll onto next week for a fun bus trip to Biggleswade where we are joined by the 4s to take on their 2s and 3s.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and we go again on Thursday.

Finally, a huge thank you to Adam Civil for stepping to to ref the game. As always he conducted himself to the highest of standards.

Match Report by Craig Neighbour.

Match day photos can be accessed using the following link https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AIRY0CX6%2Dc7Ddfw&id=8406F04E10698F04%2136265&cid=8406F04E10698F04

Photos courtesy of John Shaw @JCSSnaps https://instagram.com/jcs.snaps?utm_medium=copy_link

Photos by Adam Gumb https://instagram.com/adamgumbs_photography?utm_medium=copy_link can be viewed from his Facebook account Adam Gumbs Photography.