With no rugby played since 13^th December the boys were very keen to prove themselves and the bitterly cold weather did not seem to trouble them.  Mind you, copious biscuits were consumed to keep them fired up.

Hertford As 15 – 10 Cambridge Sand – Tries:- Harvey Jacklin , Jonah Omitowoju  

First impressions were that these squads were well matched.  Sand were very competitive and looked to be getting on top of Hertford.  Our forwards were bossing the scrum and looked to be dominating breakdowns, unfortunately, part of this came from our enthusiasm to commit to tackles, arguably leading to players getting in each other’s way during and immediately after rucks.  In fact it was fine when we were turning over the ball, but viewed from the try line there was an obvious reliance on a drift defence to cover opposition attacks from breakdowns.  Hertford had some swift backs and with their probing runs they stretched Cambridge to the limit and they were soon 1 try ahead.  Only a stunning tap tackle from Hugh Barker prevented the same move working a second time.  Charitable as we are, a third rerun of the same sequence: ruck, Hertford ball – quickly down the Hertford line – angled run and pass to their winger, gave them a 2nd try lead at half time

At the restart an early move from Hertford was interrupted by a tackle by Will Kitson leading to a strong ruck and turnover to Cambridge, quick ball out to Harvey Jacklin allowed him to sprint through to score and this brought us back to 10:5.  However, Cambridge continued to over commit to rucks. In phases when tenacious play held Hertford up, we looked the better side but whenever we relaxed and gave them time, their pace was ripping us apart.  Harvey Jacklin and Jonah Omitowoju were very busy tackling.  Hertford scored a third but Sand kept their spirits up and from a penalty and good passing along the backs, Jonah scored to finish the game with narrow 15:10 defeat.

Hertford B 5 – 5 Cambridge Blood – Try Will Kitson

Another well balanced game and all Cambridge Blood were getting involved.  We tackled well and pinned them back, giving Harvey Jacklin the chance to go close early on.  The forwards were rotated again but won all our put ins and made life very hard for the Hertford pack.  Our handling was less good, that said, it was so cold it took me 10 minutes (instead of the usual 5) to send a text so it’s not surprising. 

Harry Connor ripped the ball just as the referee was going to interrupt a slow moving maul and Will Kitson was the beneficiary, he didn’t disappoint and we had a try on the board.

In the second half Harry Connor went close early on but that served to aggravate Hertford who then kept us pinned back in our own half for the rest of the match.  Cambridge stopped two attacks on the line and held up the ball to prevent another try.  A fourth attack was interrupted by fly hack leading to a Hertford penalty quickly taken and leading to the equalising try.