Hertfordshire’s U20s, the Stags, fought their way through to the semi-finals of the Jason Leonard U20 County Championship in a tight contest against Gloucestershire at Hoe Lane on Sunday. They will now travel to Yorkshire in a fortnight to play for a place in the final at Twickenham next month.

It was nip and tuck throughout the game with both sides having their chances, but the Stags seized theirs while a few Gloucestershire chances went astray. The Stags pack had the best of the set pieces, being strong as usual in the scrums and winning almost all their line out ball plus a couple against the throw. In the loose it was very even with solid tackling on both sides stopping strong forward drives.

Behind the scrum there was again little to choose, though early in the game the home side did find a bit of space. After that the defences of both sides again proved to be too strong and every attack was snuffed out.

For once there was no wind at Hoe Lane when the Stags kicked off. Before the visitors could settle a run from full back Matt Bendin took play into their half where a penalty was conceded. The Stags kicked for a 5 metre line out, where the catch and drive saw hooker Jordan MacDonald touch down. Although the conversion attempt hit the post the Stags were 5 points up after just 5 minutes play.

A loose clearance kick then gave Gloucestershire the imitative. Their wing was tackled into touch on the 22 metre line and then the Stags were penalised, but it was the visitor’s turn to hit the post with a penalty. However, a couple of minute later full back Tom Webb (Hartpury Coll) made amends with a penalty from the 22.

Both sets of backs then had their chance to break through, but good defence forced handling errors. Then the Stags took advantage of a Gloucestershire mistake and kicked to 30 metres out. They won the line out and, when recycled from a ruck on the 22, the ball was spun left where Bendin came into the line to score wide out.

Less than 30 min had gone in the match and remarkably that was the end of the scoring. Before half time both sides missed penalties and at the whistle there was all the play for.

The second half opened with the visitors putting on the pressure, which the Stags withstood even though it cost a yellow card. Then it was the Stags turn to camp in the visitor’s half, but the Gloucestershire defence was as solid as the that of the Stags. In the last 10 minutes Gloucestershire threw everything at the home side as they fought to equal the score, but again defence won over attack and when the final whistle went the Stags had hung on to their seven point lead.

Hertfordshire Team:

Matt Bendin (Bath Uni & Hertford); Cairo Sango (Enfield Ignatian), Tom Smith (Old Albanian), Edward Harrison (Tring), Josh Rudling (Hertford); Dominic Lilley (Loughborough Uni & Bishop’s Stortford), James Mellish (Portsmouth Uni).
Daniel Hood (Uni of Surrey), Jordan MacDonald (Leeds Becket Uni), Taylor Reed (Old Albanian), Alex Cox (Old Albanian), Alex Curtis (Bath Uni & Old Albanian), Ethan Renny (Univ of West of England & Clifton), Josh Milton (Welwyn), Ed Tidey (Tring) (Capt).
Replacements (all used): James Gallagher (Loughborough Uni), Ben Mills (Enfield Ignatian), Tom Waghorne (Oaklands Coll & Old Albanian), George Carter (Nottingham Trent Uni), Cameron Wilson (Bishops Stortford), Caswell Sparks (Uni of York & Old Albanian), Alex Brown (Durham Uni)

Scorers:
Hertfordshire: Tries – MacDonald (5m), Bendin (25m)
Gloucestershire: Penalty – W