Combe again showed the type of form at Hertford on Saturday that seems to elude them at home and ran out easy winners against a home side who slowly disintegrated in the second half.
Both sides started well although Combe benefiting from cleanly taken ball at the kick-off were in possession for the first five or six minutes and Hereford's propensity to kick the ball away at the first sign of pressure plagued them throughout the game.
There was never going to be much between the sides at this point and Ryan Fuller's penalty after 15 minutes was soon equalled by Rob McPherson-Smith.
Three minutes later a move straight off the training ground just outside the Hertford 22 produced an overlap on the right flank and there was no catching Graham Purdy as he moved on to the ball at pace for arguably the best try of the match. Ryan Fuller converted from quite wide.
Hereford took eight minutes to reply with prop James Lewis barrelling over after several efforts near Combe's line. Rob McPherson-Smith added the points to tie the scores up at 10 apiece.
That could well have been the score at the interval but on 34 minutes a Hereford flanker was carded and although Ryan Fuller missed the resulting penalty he made no mistake with one on the stroke of half-time for a narrow lead which from Combe's point of view should have been more.
The real gap between the sides began to emerge early in the second half when Trent Nattrass burst clear in typical fashion in Hereford's 22 and dived between the posts. Ryan Fuller added the conversion and then a penalty a few minutes later to show “clear blue water”.
Half way through the half Hereford briefly muddied the water a little with their only score of the half with a Rob McPherson-Smith penalty but almost to order Ryan Fuller clawed that back a couple of minutes later.
Hereford seemed to lack a Plan B and the props they used so prolifically were rarely a match for the Combe forwards and the speed they had, particularly at inside centre, was often wasted.
In the last ten minutes Combe scored two fine tries to ultimately stamp their superiority on the game with Hereford visibly disintegrating on and off the ball, the teams met in two huddles before a restart presumably at the behest of the referee.
Ben Hough's try came from the ball being hacked through and a race for the line that the Combe player easily won but then had to gather the ball which he did by sliding into the retrieve and then showed great presence of mind to avoid any accusation of double movement. Charlie Edwards' bonus try was just as ingenious when he managed to turn the Hertford defence inside out from a little more than the five metre line!
I feel sorry for the Combe faithful who don't travel to away games—they've yet to see such a comprehensive display of rugby as the second half of this game, but it should give the team enough confidence to replicate this form at home—so I hope they do not have to wait too long!

Team: Toby May; Graham Purdy, Ben Hough, Tyron Child, Ryan Fuller; Charlie Edwards, Trent Nattrass; Reece Conlon, Graeme Carson, Dale Bellinger; Tom Clarke, Nick Coles; Luke Bellinger, Hamish Barton, Geoff Marshall. James Snape, Chris Lewis, Luke Giles.

Match Reporter: Mike Attewell (with invaluable support from Trevor Ludlow).