Watford 2nd XV 55 – 16 South Oxhey 1st XV

Man of the Match:

A sloppy start from Watford allowed for a South Oxhey lead to occur, as lax tackling and lazy running led towards a penalty being awarded in front of the home teams uprights, which was duly converted by the opposition.

From the kick off, hard running and hard tackling lead to South Oxhey being penalised, allowing for fly half Mcgee to slot over his first kick of the match, bringing the points to an equal balance.   

It appeared that Watford had woken from their stupor and were now playing the rugby that they have been training for.  Mcgee placing a delicate kick over the South Oxhey defence for full back Harris to run onto.  Harris managed to fly hack the ball over the South Oxhey line, but was hauled back off the ball before he was able to touch down for which the referee awarded a penalty try.

This was conversely not to lead to a precedent of Watford domination.  South Oxhey came back, hitting good lines, with poor discipline from Watford allowing another penalty to be awarded against them, which was duly converted.

Watford then achieved a breakout try.  A skewed pass from the back of a ruck bobbled along to a 4 man overlap to be exploited for maximum gain by Dave Lewens, who managed to scrape over the line despite being swarmed by black shirts.

A further try were scored by Jamie Miller through swift hands working to find the prop on the wing for some reason.

In the 2^nd half Watford started as they had ended, taking the ball deep into the visiting teams territory where they worked hard at pinning back the black tide that kept threatening to leak through their defences. 

Connor Stevens managing to pick and go from the back of a ruck, twisted and turned and managed to bundle his way over the line, for his first try of the season.

A fantastic individual effort from Scott Menzies led to his try.  From the back of a Watford scrum, the ball was given to Menzies, deciding to chip through to the South Oxhey tryline, himself and Gilmore hot in pursuit.  The S.O fullback hesitated for a split second which was all that was needed for Menzies to swing him around as the kick was attempted, leading to a spilt ball and a neat try underneath the posts.

S.O however were working hard in attack as well as defense, leading to Watford being beaten on the outside twice for South Oxhey to put a further 10 points on the home side. 

The game ended up being played extremely hard but fair, with massive hits going in from both sides.  One in particular sticks in mind, when Scott Menzies was dumped so hard he had to go off for a minute as he was sick on the pitch as a result of the hit.

Paul Wilson managed to score from a clever reverse pass inside from a scrum on the oppositions’ 5 metre line.

Lee managed to net his second try of the season after intercepting a pass and sidestepping the S.O fullback before touching down under the posts.

The final try, came from flowing rugby played by Watford down the South Oxhey wing, involving no less than 6 players offloading to each other and continuing the run.  After Georgio Pitsialis was tackled, he managed to offload the ball to veteran vice captain James Sedgely, who controlled the ball with his leg before picking it up and going over, allowing him to touch down for his first try this season.

Captain Andrew Lee said after that match “I am very proud of each and every player on that field.  It was an immensely physical game, with both teams not shying away from the contact area.  The score belied how even the game was.  This is another good result and we have to keep the momentum up for the big games that are approaching”.