Watford 27 vs 10 Chess Valley

Man of the Match: Jake Bennett & Martin Kinneavy

A mixture of first and second team players comfortably beat Chess Valley this weekend to set themselves in good stead for the seasons run in. Fielding yet another young team (a feature of this years squads), Watford at times played scintilating rugby that was both effective and pleasing on the eye.
 
From the kick off the home side looked the more dangerous team, the forwards exerting a measure of dominance at the set piece, particularly the scrum which subsequently gave the back line the time and space to play an open and expansive game. An intelligent kick from fly half McGee was gathered by winger Lewens, who offloaded to the supporting James who in turn passed to centre Braun. Braun made decent ground, before eventually being caught by the covering Chess Valley defence. Despite being hauled down, the centre showed great awareness to offload in the tackle to the supporting Lewens who showed a clean pair of heels to scoot under the posts for the first score. The conversion was missed, making the score 5-0 after 10 minutes. What followed was an extra ordinary 15 minutes for the home team, in particular 17 year old scrum half Bennett. Bernarius gathered the re-start for the hosts, taking his team towards the half way line before an infringement at the ruck gave Watford a penalty. It took three oposing players to halt prop Gary Wilsons subsequent charge, with the ball being recycled to the back of the ruck. Bennett proceeded to throw an outrageous dummy which completely fooled the Chess guard defence, running half the field to score in the corner. From the re-start Watford again attacked, and some excellent interchanges between forward and back took the home side into the opposition 22. The ball was taken over the line by the Chess 10 following a grubber kick, giving the hosts a 5 metre scrum. Bernarius picked and drove, before offloading to the supporting Pitsialis who was tackled just short of the line yet, in similar fasion to Braun showed the awareness to offload to Bennett who crossed the line for the easiest of scores. McGee added the extras, giving Watford a 17-0 lead with only 20 minutes of the game played. Bennett was not finished however, and good disrupting work from the young No. 9 at a Chess Valley scrum 5 metres from their line caused a fumble. Bennett reacted quickest to a loose ball in the in-goal area, pouncing to secure his first senior hat trick in his first season of senior rugby.
 
The away side made a couple of substitutions, and showed great heart to come back and put the Watford line under serious pressure for the first time in the match. Despite enjoying a nearly unbroken ten minutes of pressure, the Watford defence held firm until the last play of the half saw the Chess prop smash over the line for a deserved try. It was particularly pleasing to see the commitment Watford showed during these ten minutes at the contact area, with some fine work from Kinneavy, Bernarius and Pitsialis in particular emphasising the home teams determination.
 
The second half never lived up to the fireworks of the first, with Chess upping their game and Watford easing off slightly. The home side added one further score, Lee on as a replacement for the injured Hill picking from the base of a scrum and making good ground before passing inside to the supporting Bernarius to cross the line. Chess rallied, and scored a late consolation leaving the final score Watford 27 Chess Valley 10.
 
Skipper Wilson was understandably pleased with the result. "For me, the most pleasing aspect was to see us finally bring training ground manoeuvres to the pitch come match day. The support play was superb, as was the offloading in the tackle. We also came out and played rugby from the off, rather than waiting till the final ten minutes". It must also be noted that the average age of the team was 20, winger Botha the oldest player on the pitch at 29 (sorry Theo).
 
Watford: G. Wilson, P. Wilson, Philpott, Hill (Lee 45), J. Stevens, Kinneavy, Pitsialis, Bernarius, Bennett, McGee, Lewens (Rose 30), Braun, James, Botha, Harris.