Fantastic First Festival at Richmond

The Richmond Rugby Festival was played under grey South London skies. Hampstead’s first game was against an eager-looking London Scottish who were greatly strengthened by the membership of former Heathen, Leopold!

The Exiles were tenacious from the start and took our team by surprise with an early try. Fantastic tackling from Benji was not enough to stop London Scottish from grabbing another quick try. The team kept their composure however and built up a good run against London Scottish, Kaius seized the initiative and gathered a loose ball to go over the line and get Hampstead onto the scoresheet. Sensing a shift in momentum the team worked fantastically together, Alexander pushed forward with powerful run, and Riley showed his usual work-rate combined with a lovely off-load to Arthur P which culminated in a brilliant second try. The team were unlucky to concede another try meaning that they headed into half time with the momentum in London Scottish’s favour.

The team started the second half with high spirits and their heads up, Freddie had clearly eaten two bowls of Weetabix for breakfast and was tackling all over the field, he quickly followed up his defensive display with a great try to pull the team level. Hampstead were hungry to score another, Maxence in particular was throwing all his effort into finding a hole in the Scottish defence, sadly his efforts went unrewarded and London Scottish were lucky to get a couple of break-away tries to end the match.

Next up was Grasshoppers, and once again Hampstead found themselves up against an opposition who clearly meant business as they bagged an early try. Arthur P answered this in the only way he knows how, with a darting run through 3 defenders to score a brilliant opportunistic try. When a shoddy Grasshoppers restart allowed him to score again Arthur wasted no time and was unlucky to be tackled just before the line, following a Hampstead scrum the team would not be denied again and went over the line to take the lead. The team now seemed to be waking up after the long trip down to Richmond, Oliver linked up with Alexander and they went over for another try. The second half started with some more great passes between Theo and Alexander which got Hampstead another try. The second half also marked the arrival of Hampstead’s very own Ben-shaped “Bomb squad”, asserting his presence from the off Ben used his trademark power to mark up another score for the team with minutes left to play. Grasshoppers came back strongly, Cillian put in some great tackles, he and Kaius nearly stole a try on the counter attack.

After a brief rest the team had to face an ominous looking Barnes. Arthur P and Benji put on an early display of Gallic flare with Benji scoring a well worked try. Arthur P followed this up with another couple of tries to leave Hampstead in a strong position. Barnes however had a secret weapon who surged through the Hampstead defence to score a quick try in reply, he would have had another if the referee had not ruled that the had been too vigorous in his hand-off. Oliver and Ernest did some great leg work for Hampstead and were unlucky not to score. The Barnes secret weapon struck again however and he ran in another try to leave the score finely balanced going into half time. The team were tiring and it was a scrappy start to the second half, Riley, Theo and Maxence all put in huge effort in defence but it wasn’t enough to stop Barnes from picking up another try. Coming back onto the field after a nasty stud injury to the knee Cillian showed great bravery to put in a big try-saving tackle in the dying seconds of the game.

Hampstead’s final match was against Teddington who had thrashed Barnes earlier in the morning and had a pack who seemed to outweigh Hampstead by 2 to 1! The Hampstead team however were unintimidated and Benji went out to prove this point by scoring a quick try along the wing. Teddington responded immediately and used their weight and power to draw the match level. They continued to apply pressure but Ben, Maxence, Theo and Riley gave their all to stop Hampstead conceding another try. At the start of the second half Alexander demonstrated great reserves of fitness to run in another brilliant try. Not to be outdone, Benji and Arthur once again gave another side-stepping master class and took the score up again. The team were really getting into their stride now with Kaius, Cillian and Oliver all showing their rucking abilities. Ben grabbed a loose ball and a 4th try for Hampstead late in the game, and even after a late score for Teddington, the team came away happy.

Celebratory burgers followed, at what was a very well organised festival. As always, big thanks to all the coaches for giving their time and leading the team to a very successful first tournament of the season.

Joe OBrien