Sat 16 Nov 2019
The cork came away from the bottle with a real spurt and the young Legend genies made merry in this eleven try fest at Baldock Road on Saturday.
When so often the team had spluttered and failed to close out winnable games this season … Hampstead, Chiswick, London Welsh being prime examples … this week Dave Hynard and Jaggi Johal’s charges ran like a well oiled machine with only a few blimps along the way, the worst being a bad shoulder injury to prop Richard Stokes. Indeed it was three from clan Johal - brothers Aman and Jai and cousin Arun - who had great performances in the back division and the score sheet was dominated by that family. However they could only do it with possession and the scrum was in dominant form under temporary skipper Johnny Brain and some great work in the lineout and loose by Harry Charlier.
The first twenty minutes was almost like a pin ball game. A good early start saw the ball moved wide and Aman Johal plunged over with brother Jai slotting a good conversion. Grasshoppers struck back when an awkward kick was left to bounce into the grateful visitors hands for an easy run in. Minutes later Letchworth were back in the lead with Jai Johal tearing through and just missing the conversion. Back came Grasshoppers with another seven pointer following loose tackling before veteran full back Kieran Davies took a hand and went over to restore the lead to 17/12. The visitors were not going to go away and from what looked to be a somewhat crooked lineout the visitors hooker caught the Letchworth defence on the hop to make it 17/17. However there was still more to come in the first forty minutes as after some mazy running pocket battleship Oscar Robinson took the ball from thirty metres and outstripped the defence to score with Jai Johal adding the conversion. Then great interplay between Davies and Arun Johal saw flying winger Tattinda Gurure add another try and the referee blew for half time so the crowd could draw breath at 31/17 at the interval.
The visitors pressed hard at the start of the second period and took three points in front of the posts. Again Legends broke out and gained sixty metres from great hands and were awarded a penalty themselves but the strike just failed. A period of sustained pressure saw the forwards in several drives just short of the Grasshoppers line before the backs were released and Davies went over to make it 38/20 with another successful conversion.
Grasshoppers were given a glimmer of hope when Legends had the ball turned over and their winger scored in the corner to make it 38/27 but this time Letchworth did not buckle and in the last minute Kyle ‘Rambo’ Hughes - back for his first game in a year since joining the fire brigade - made an outstanding break and fittingly scrum half Chris Gibbs, who had been a pain in the visitors side all afternoon, was on hand to score Letchworth’s seventh and final try converted by Jai Johal as the referee, who himself had a good game, blew the final whistle.
So a great bonus point win for Legends and it is to be hoped that they carry this form into the tough games that lie ahead starting with an away game at Hemel Hempstead next week, who themselves beat Welwyn quite handsomely this weekend. In two weeks time there is the next round of the intermediate cup when Legends host Welwyn with a two o clock kick off preceded by a lunch hosted by President Brian BURKE; contact 07768 274037 to book your place.
The roller coaster continues!
Team:
Robinson
Allen
Stokes
Brierley
Brain ( c )
Stacey
Charlier
Jones L
Gibbs
Dunscombe
Gurure
Johal Arun
Johal Aman
Johal Jai
Davies K
Hughes
Jarman
Schoeman
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