Grasshoppers 0 - 46 BERFC

Herts and Middlesex U16s League Division 3

Our first outing in Division 3 since a 19-12 defeat at Hitchin way back in March 2011 had sealed the then BERFC U13s fate, and relegation to Division 4 – and what spoke volumes for team spirit, camaraderie and hard work is that the majority of the squad selected to open this campaign were part of that same team relegated two and a half years ago.

Grasshoppers had won Division 4 at U14s, the year we went down, and our league encounter then had finished all square at 15-a-piece. Last season Grasshoppers finished comfortably mid-table in Div 3, and a friendly between us had finished 17-17, so on paper, a tight match was on the cards.

The BERFC boys were fired up and in no mood to let lightning strike twice, and after just three minutes at the crease Frazer showed his opposite number a clean pair of heels to open the BERFC league account for the 2013-14 season, 0 – 7.

Three minutes later a strong run from Kadeem brought up the dozen, before a double in 5 minutes from Louis H (one particularly well lined up by Harrison) brought the score to 0 - 24 with a quarter of an hour played.

Not to be outdone, Frazer then bagged his brace, and Louis W dived through a melee (a move stolen by Matt Stevens later that afternoon) to bring the half time score to 0 - 34 .

BERFC hadn't had it all their own way during the first 35 minutes, with a big strong Grasshoppers unit coming close on several occasions, but the BERFC defence stood firm and cleared their lines.

Grasshoppers came out fired up for the second half and looked in no mood to surrender, pressuring the BERFC line once more, but first Tom St wrestled the ball over, then Lawrence capped off a fine run from Luke , to round off a very satisfactory team performance – and the ref called time with only 13 minutes played of the second half when the final try brought the score to 0 - 46.

Credit to Grasshoppers for battling all the way and testing the BERFC defence on several occasions – but what was apparent was how tirelessly the BERFC boys worked for one another in defence and attack, to allow the aforementioned boys to cross the whitewash.

A pleasure to watch.