'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' Haka stuns Harpenden 'Mighty 4ths'

On an eventful day, it started off with the team made up of initially only 12 players, due to movement of players to the 1XV and illness/unavailability. With a ‘hawaiian shirt and large hat’ theme for the day, the tourists boarded their minibus for a 1 ½ hour journey taking in the sights of the A3, M25 and M1, arriving in Harpenden with 30mins to spare before kick-off.

With a ‘toast’ at the Harpenden RFC clubhouse bar, the tourists took to the field with 15 players, made up by our gracious host’s spare players. As the two captains (with the referee – of which to note had a marvellous game and recognition that he was a replacement with half hour’s notice – true rugby spirit) tossed the coin to start the game, the Petersfield ‘Tourists’ undertook the ‘Field rendition of the All Blacks Haka, entitled ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’. From the kick-off, and with Harpenden seemingly stunned by the ‘Field Haka, Petersfield were in total control of the game, with both forwards (notable Mark Christmas, Ben Hooper, Alex Patience, Adam Coyte and Dave 'Rocky' Cosway) and backs working in tandem at the breakdown and with the ever youthful scrum-half, Gary ‘Woody’ Harfield, producing quick phased ball. With Harpenden enable to cope with the ferocity and line speed, especially by the two Petersfield youngsters in the centre – Sam Rushmer and Harley Orr – the first try was not far away. Therefore, with only 5 minutes played, and after several phases of play, No.8 Mark Christmas crashed over the line from a scrum pick up from the 5 metre line to score the first (unconverted) try of the game.

This seemed to spark Harpenden in to life, with both teams showing good, hard competitiveness at the breakdown and an appetite to pass the ball wide, utilising the speed of each other’s backs. Although slightly against the run of play, Harpenden capitalised on a couple of Petersfield errors and launched two stunning counter-attacks utilising their quick young winger touching down for two converted tries. Again, the ‘Field came back strong, showing their ferocity at the breakdown and within the tackle, they were rewarded with a try by fly-half, Alex Groves, who rumbled through four tacklers to crash over the try line. Unfortunately, Groves was having a day to forget in regards to kicking and was, again, wayward with the conversion attempt. Half-time score: 14-10 to Harpenden.

The second half continued exactly as the first half had ended but it was noticeable that Petersfield were still stronger at the breakdown. Unfortunately, their was one moment of ‘over-zealousness’ in the tackle, which was swiftly dealt with by the referee, sin-binning two Petersfield players. This seemed to galvanise the ‘Field team, of whom upped the tempo and, amazingly, after several phases, scored a converted try (Christmas) to take the lead for the second time in the match. The lead did not last long as Harpenden utilised their two man overlap to score under the posts – 19-17 to Harpenden.

With Petersfield back to 15, a storming finish was inevitable and, ironically, the last word was left to Harpenden old boy and ‘Field 3XV Captain, Julian Blanks, who bundled over the line to score the winning try. Final score: 19-22 to Petersfield.

Chris Walls, Harpenden 4XV coach/player commented “It was great game, played in a competitive nature and I would hope to see both clubs sort out more fixtures in the future”. Julian Blanks 3XV captain also commented that “It was a good experience for those Petersfield youngsters that probably haven’t played much outside of Hampshire and to take in the rugby spirit of going on a mini-tour. Many thanks to Harpenden for providing the spare players who enjoyed themselves immensely”.

Next Fixture: 24th November - Petersfield 3XV v Winchester Vets

Final Score: Harpenden 4XV (19) v Petersfield 3XV (22)
Tries: Christmas (2), Groves and Blanks
Conversions: Groves

Team: Adam Coyte, Dave Cosway, Julian Blanks, Alex Patience, Ben Hooper, Frank Spooner, Mark Christmas, Gary Harfield, Alex Groves, Sam Rushmer, Harley Orr, Jimmy Millar