Sat 12 Nov 2022
Saturday 12th November 2022
RFU league Counties 2 Herts/Middlesex
Hendon RFC 12-22 Saracens Amateurs RFC
"Not a good day at the office” for Hendon Rugby in a match sponsored by Hendon Honorary Life President John Casalaspro, whose son Sean was celebrating his 100th game at scrum half for Saracens Amateurs
Hendon let themselves be dominated in the 1st period with a converted try and penalty to Saracens and went behind further at the start of the second half as Saracens ran in an easy try to go 0-17 pts up.
The home outfit then rallied and although without key players who were still not available through injury, they used their backline to the full advantage with Scrum Half Richard Roberts orchestrating play with a great backline move to Cian Hynes followed by JT Moncher then to Harvey Brown finishing at speed in the corner to score Hendon’s first try 5-17.
Minutes later Saracens added another try out wide giving them a 5-22 advantage with 10 minutes left to play. But Hendon heads held high and another attacking move saw Saracens on the back foot to concede a penalty in their 22 taken quickly by Roberts to put Moncher away to score a Hynes converted try at 12-22. At the last Hendon were on the defensive but held off Saracens from further scoring.
Meanwhile the 2nd XV were playing Old Grammarians 1sts in a friendly as their Merit Table match was called off and although they too came out on the wrong side of the scoreline it was good to see that Hendon, although struggling with player absence managed to field two sides, which is proving very difficult for many local clubs.
Thanks to match sponsor 'Cas' there was live music in the clubhouse after the games and, despite the results, the clubhouse was buzzing as Hendon and their opponents enjoyed their after match beers.
