A plague visited north London Saturday night - ranging from winter bugs to piano-related incidents - and it was a threadbare Hampstead squad that welcomed Southwark and Regent’s Park to a chilly Heath Extension. Eleven boys braved the cold, mud and early start, and knew that they had no reserves. It was going to be up to them; whatever they could find inside themselves.

Not the largest team Hampstead has put out started against a very large, physical Southwark Tigers team. The boys started well, scoring in the early going, but the match became very attritional as the game went on. Some very effective rucking from the Tigers, targeting smaller Hampstead attackers, meant that they had a good run of possession that eventually told and the boys went into the half at 1-1. The second half started in a similar fashion - until a quick kick turned defence into attack and sent a Hampstead speedster away. The match then settled down in to an odd combination of some physical tight battles and kick chase from both sides. The boys kept their heads through a very hard match to referee, and probably nicked it at the end.

Then (given a rather cold Regent’s Park team) the boys rolled straight back in to another match. This one was more straightforward - the boys fronted up and made the tackles they needed to on some very large runners, and then showed great skill and effort to demonstrate a real difference afterwards. Winning turnovers at the breakdown, moving the ball significantly faster, and showing a real cutting edge. Though the second half showed the team tiring and leaked a few tries (definitely missed some of our cover tacklers), the attack still worked and led to a clear victory to wrap up.

Finally three of the boys decided they hadn’t enough and volunteered to play on with RP to ensure more of the Southwark boys could play on. They again put in a great effort - and actually helped RP play Southwark in a tight match - involved around the park - jackalling, rucking, tackling and scoring

All in all a great opportunity for some of the boys to step up and take more responsibility than they were used to, and to help fire them up for the league match next week.