Following two close games with Hertford last season ( a narrow loss and a draw) this thumping defeat was clearly most disappointing. It was made more difficult to stomach by the fact that the Stags’ backs at least did not have quite such a bad day at the office as the score line might suggest with James Houstoun even making a pretty good fist of playing stand-off.

Up- front it was a different story although two early injuries which saw the players concerned depart permanently within the first quarter of an hour with another already seemingly moving somewhat gingerly went a long way towards explaining why the Stags were so badly outplayed in that department. Indeed the only real question one could ask about Hertford’s 10-0 first half lead was how come they had not scored more, the answer of course lying in the resoluteness at that stage at least of the CS tackling. There had been an awful lot of it to do. Hertford did not open their account until a penalty on twenty five minutes, quickly followed however by a converted try. Every now and then the CS backs had had an opportunity to show that they too were an attacking force but Hertford’s defence of their own line was even more uncompromising.

With the lion’s share of possession Hertford were always likely to cut loose in the second half which they duly did scoring a penalty and five further tries. CS had briefly flourished to the extent of closing to 13-3 with a Houstoun penalty and came close themselves on a few occasions but overall it has to be said that they were badly outplayed by a side playing with ever increasing confidence.

CS scorer:

Pen : Houstoun