In bright winter sunshine we traveled to Letchworth for a first time fixture with a very civilised 11am kick off. Despite a good warm up the extra hour in bed enjoyed by the boys had not resulted in 15 super alert rugby players and it was Letchworth that started the brighter scoring from their opening attack. OB’s responded with some strong direct running from the kick off releasing Adesiyan on the right wing for a score.
OB’s looked to be waking up with a scrum just inside their half leading to a good hook by Christopher allowing Jessop at nine the time to box kick over the Letchworth rushing defence,Sagomba was the quickest to react darting through the defensive line ,The bounce favoured the OB centre giving the Letchworth fullback no chance and Sagomba’s pace secured the try.
Letchworth responded recycling ball well and again creating an overlap as the OB defence was slow to drift and scored. Torrado took another fine catch at the kick-off and a series of well-orchestrated plays ensued, moving the ball deep into the Letchworth half allowing Sagomba to again cross the line for a second try. Letchworth redoubled their efforts and played some great rugby to get inside the OB 22 securing a penalty before breaking through two OB's tackles to score. The conversion was good and once again Letchworth were in the lead. OB’s responded with the pack working hard and Jessop's lively work delivering clean ball to the backs giving Adesiyan space to cross for his second converted by Reid. Letchworth again responded moving down field and sucking in the OB defence to create another overlap and a score they duly converted.

Half time saw Letchworth deservedly in the lead 24 to 22.

The half time team talk seemed to finally wake the boys up. OB’s started to defend, as they had been attacking, with a purpose holding a defensive line and closing down the spaces. Adesiyan’s speed and strength continued to cause Letchworth problems as he crossed for a further two tries one of which Bryant converted with a superb kick.
The forwards in particular were immense with Griffin at his rampaging best and proving doubters wrong, breaking the gain line on every carry and deftly off-loading to the supporting players on numerous occasions.
Torrado followed a strong first half with an even stronger second securing a well-deserved and first try of the season. Stringer and Reid both used their speed and strength to disrupt Letchworth ball making first tackles and competing at the breakdown. In offence their work rate was rewarded with a try each with Reid adding a conversion. Letchworth were by no means quiet and still showed their attacking strength with two tries and a conversion.
The momentum however was with OB’s and new squad member Ayo Dosunmu showed his speed running in a superb solo try from a Letchworth kick off. The final score of the day came courtesy of Ovie, another debutante, whom had played superbly throughout the second half tackling and supporting with maturity beyond his years.
The game therefore ended with a score that perhaps does not fairly represent the effort and skill of the Letchworth side. Certainly they were deserved winners of the first half and OB’s need to look at why there defence was so slow at the start of the game. No doubt something the coaches will work on in the coming training sessions. We would like to thank Colin for his time and refereeing skills and whole Letchworth club and team for their warm welcome and sportsmanship.

Match details

Match date

Sun 28 Oct 2018

Kickoff

10:30

Team overview