Old Halesonians 35 Hereford 10
An up-beat Head Coach, Scott Sturdy, said “A solid away performance today, at Old Halesonians. In today’s team we had two debutants and three other guys who are eighteen years old with just five appearances between them. It was a good performance from us even though the score doesn’t reflect the effort that the lads put in. We have a long way to go to get to where we want to be, but it’s definitely a building block for us. This was the first time, away from home we’ve actually turned up and put a shift in.
I’m really proud of the team today for the effort and performance they put in and say thank you to the lads who made their 1st team debuts today, Alan Millar and Sam Heeps, an eighteen-year-old prop. Sam got stuck in, he went to tight head to start and then moved to loose head, putting in a really good performance. It was also lovely to see Toby Jones in the back row, put in a man of the match display and play eighty minutes on his first 1st team start.
In terms of where we are for the season, we know this is definitely a development year plagued by injury as it’s been. We’d love to be further up the table, but we are where we are. We are starting to get transfer from training into games and hopefully over the coming months we’ll begin to see players coming back from injury. I would like to thank Old Halesonians.  We had good craic after the game, they entertained us really well and we look forward to welcoming them to Wyeside in March.”

Another poor start at Old Halesonians shipping two tries in ten minutes, but Hereford responded well.

They lifted their game and after a good run by Joe Vaughan, Aaron Lewis was left with little room and was forced into touch. Building on a successful period of play the Wyesiders added a try of their own. Josh Wright found a good touch from a penalty and a catch and drive was forced over the Halesonians line for Lewis Jordan to touch down for the try.
In the windy conditions, which made place kicking difficult if not impossible, the conversion attempt was wide. Hereford gave as good as they got for the rest of the first period and were unlucky to concede a third try just before the interval when an attack broke down and an Halesonian player broke away, made a good off-load to a supporting player who ran in for a try.

The score of 15 points to 5 at half time in no way reflected the run of play.

Hereford started the second half as they had done the first conceding two early tries.  One of which was
converted giving the hosts a 27 points to 5 lead after just 47 minutes played. The Wyesiders again lifted their game, but a period of sustained pressure on their line, saw the ball moved wide for Halesonians to score in the corner. With twenty minutes left, Hereford renewed their efforts.  On several occasions Hereford got close to scoring despite some eccentric refereeing decisions. Eventually after some aggressive attacking play the Wyesiders were rewarded when Tom Broad was released down the left wing to score in the corner. Hereford continued to attack with no success.  Halesonians completed the game with a penalty, giving them a 35 points to 10 victory.
All six teenagers in the Hereford squad can be proud of their game. Josh Wright at 10 kicked and tackled well belying his age and experience.  Jack Goodwin played his usual forceful game despite playing out of position in the centre.  Tom Broad scored his first 1st team try and the forwards Ben Greenhouse, Sam Heeps and Toby Jones all had excellent games.
Next week there is a rest from League matches but the following week the visitors to Wyeside are table toppers Stoke, another tough game for the young team.