On the hottest day of 2025 so far, the WHS girls travelled to Hertford RFC (or as they widely advertised, Jamie George’s grassroots team). A bumper crowd (the largest I’ve seen of any home or away game this season for our girls) gave the spectators, coaches and girls on the pitch a brilliant sense of atmosphere for both teams deserved throughout the game.

A dominant start saw the girls over the tryline for a quick try within the first few minutes. However, Hertford soon settled into the game. The ball made it into the hands of Hertford’s left winger who did her very best impression of Sha'Carri Richardson as she darted through the WHS defense for Hertford's first try.

The scoreboard and game play evened up with tries going back and forth between the two teams. The game encompassed some thunderous carries and breaks from all girls no matter the number on their back and some great rucking and jacking on exhibition from both sides, backs and forwards hammering rucks like their lives depended on it.

Whilst Hertford did a fantastic job dominating the set piece, it was evident that play on the field was heavily controlled by the WHS girls with the forwards making carry after carry pounding away at the Hertford defense, before the backs span it through the hands spreading the width of the pitch.

The game ended with WHS completely dominating the last 15 minutes, running in some tries, keeping up with Hertford conversions. As we ran in a total of 10 tries across the game.

A thrilling display of skill and determination from all the girls, putting in a formiddable shift against a strong Hertford team.

FT score - WHS 56 - 38 Hertford

Forward of the match - Phoebe (Watford) & Ella - Grace (Stockwood)

Phoebe made some excellent jackals, giving our girls an advantage in defense and allowing our girls to capitalise on an unorganised Hertford defense, pilfering the ball in all positions across the pitch whenever the chance presented itself to her.

Ella - Grace had one of her strongest performances of the season with some bursting runs making several metres with every carry repeatedly fracturing Hertford's defensive line. Also a special shoutout for her well deserved first try of the season!

Back of the match - Margot (Watford) - Margot was asked to fill in last minute at scrumhalf. Despite any doubts she had of herself being able to quickly learn the position before the game, they quickly evaporated away as the minutes ticked on. She did a great job distributing, working tirelessly to get to each ruck and most impressively putting immense pressure on the opposing scrumhalf during set piece, leaping on her like a hungry lioness. The Hertford’s scrumhalf was crumbling under pressure, panicking at the thought of Margot’s tackle.

Girl of the Match - Freya (Stockwood) - Freya - Freya did a fantastic job across the whole back line playing across a variety of different positions, playing outside centre, filling in at flyhalf and fullback at times during the game, and successfully doing her best impersonation of Marcus Smith, pulling strings, as well as splitting the defense in two, slicing through the Hertfords defense dotting the ball down on multiple occassions.

From the coach's perspective, we would like to give a special mention to Eloise (Harpenden) for stepping in to Hertford’s team in the second half to balance out the numbers after they suffered an injury to one of their players. She played exceptionally well and said to me after the game that she doesn’t know why she feels that she plays better playing against us than for us. She played impressively well, even if it was against us. We all can’t wait to see her impress in the remaining fixtures this season!

Similarly, a special mention for Sophie (Watford) who made a brilliant impact defending some monster counter rucks as she protected the rucks amazingly well and also made a brilliant run, breaking ankle of would be defenders running through the middle of 4 of them before scoring a try of her own, a close contender for back of the match!

Written by Fionn McGuinness.