A Tale of Two Halves

This really was a game of two halves. It took Tring 38 minutes to finally up the ante and realise it was Saturday afternoon and they had a tough game on their hands and they weren't at the shopping maul. It was a bizarre, lacklustre first half, the warm up was spot on and full of intensity. Maybe we burnt out and used all of our skills up in the build up to the match!

Watford started well and kept up the intensity and willingness to fight for the entire match, with a lot of players with a lot to say including their captain playing at prop with a rather small vocabulary, each word preceded by an expletive managing to wind his team up nicely. Their fly half was undoubtedly their player of the match controlling the game for them.

The lead was by 17 points to nil at half time, two minutes before which Watford received their first yellow card for a needless push, when play had stopped, on Mat Hutchin (who was excellent again) who was minding his own business. This finally seemed to fire up the entire Tring side and you could visibly see the body language change. They put together a fantastic few phases of play, lead by Ben Dumpleton, ultimately it did not lead to anything but it was enough to show both teams that Tring were on the comeback trail. 17-0 at half time.

After a few stern words from Coach Boniface and captain Gareth Haywood at half time the Tring side continued where they left off. It's a cliché but this really was a game of two halves. An earlier injury to Tom Burrows on the wing had left room for a new recruit to Tring, a lad by the name of Stitchy (who is cup and league tied for 2nd team!!!!) to step in at fly half. The re-shuffle allowed the excellent Nick Game to move back to his preferred position of Full Back and have more influence on the game. The Tring pack showed real fight again and allowed the backs some space and time on the ball which allowed the backs to show what they can do. Lots of good phases and good ball delivered from the vastly improving Luke Paterson meant Tring were able to register their first points. Stitchy scored a try by the post on his debut for the club and a good two seconds after he dotted the ball down their 9 thought it would be ok to run from 10 yards away and take him out. Ensue a 20 man brawl, not great to see but fair play to Tring who had been continually subjected to cheap shots all joined in to back up their team mates. At one point Gaz was pinned down by 3 of the Watford players. Another yellow card for Watford and a talking to from the referee to both teams allowed Tring to capitalise. Nick Game then scored 3 tries, one disallowed by their touch judge. With one try being converted Tring had clawed their way back from 17 points down to achieve a draw. To come back and out score the opposition by 3 tries to two was a great achievement. Watford felt hard done by after their first half performance, Tring would take a draw after that start but the game could have been Trings.

Man of the Match was David Scoot who was excellent and for a young lad was happy to lead from the front. His attitude is outstanding and for a hooker playing at back row, and jumping in the line has become a very important part of this squad. As always the whole team were superb but Nick Game deserves another mention for again showing he has the ability to be a match winner.