This month finally saw the return of competitive rugby for the first time since March. In line with the RFU's Return to Rugby initiative, clubs have been taking part in Ready4Rugby tournaments. The format is an adapted form of touch rugby aimed at maintaining core skills and fitness whilst club are unable to engage in full contact games. These fixtures have enabled the squad to play against other sides, keeping players engaged and ensure that the new squad members are integrated successfully.

We started the month with a tournament at Old Merchant Taylors Rugby Club. Fifteen players new and old made the trip to Northwood to take part in a round robin that included the hosts, Chess Valley and Slough. The day was a great success and we were victorious in all three games plus the final against Slough to take overall victory. A week later we hosted an inter club event together with the University of Hertfordshire. There was some fantastic attacking rugby on display (nobody was quite sure what the scores where!) and it is great to see the partnership between our club and the university continue to thrive. We are building further strength in depth with 12 new players making their club debuts this month including 7 from the University.

Last weekend Saints hosted their first round robin event welcoming Chess Valley and Hatfield QE II plus two teams of our own the Blues and the Reds. The Blues made it to the final eventually sharing the spoils with Chess Valley two tries a piece. As always, we would like to extend gratitude to all the volunteers involved with running the club in accordance with guidelines - Paul Mather for organising and BBQ duty, John Martin for managing the facilities, Debbie for running the bar, Herts Rugby and Roly for providing the officials, FB and Golds for the BBQ and Richard for coaching.

As stated before player recruitment has been very strong this season and we have further additions yet to make their club debuts. They will hopefully run out for the blue and gold next month. Staff recruitment has also been fantastic with our new Strength and Conditioning coach Lewis Gaffney keeping the squad in the best possible shape and improving all aspects of our technical ability.

Away from rugby we are delighted to announce that Mather Marshall, George Davies Turf Ltd and JJ Burgess have all renewed their sponsorship of the rugby club for another year. We would like to thank Hawk Kitchens and Bathrooms for their support last season as well as the continued support of all our existing partners during this time.

As we head into November and the weather turns colder we have a packed rugby schedule with four tournaments already in the calendar, we hope to report more success in next month's newsletter.