Hitchin U16 14 v Hemel U16 17

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Unfortunately this game was abandoned due to what appeared to be a serious injury to a Hemel player which required hospital treatment, he was released and was seen back at Hemel in the afternoonon crutches, we hope his recovery is short and is soon back playing rugby.

The weather was set fair for a good game of running rugby, this week we almost had a full squad, and they all turned up, only George, Guy and Jonathan were missing.

From the kick-off Hitchin put Hemel under pressure but as is the norm we couldn’t convert the pressure into points, the game was only about 10 minutes old when Ollie had to leave the field with ham string problems, which led to a restructuring of the team, Robbie went to the flank and Reece filled in at inside centre, meaning we now had 2 back row in playing in the backs, Reggie was on the wing.

It was just after this when Hemel won a line-out and with good hands got it to their winger who out-paced Hitchin’s defence to score under the posts.

Again Hitchin put pressure on Hemel but it was always slow ball, allowing Hemel to set a strong defence, perhaps we were not committing enough players at the breakdown and as such Elliot was having to struggle to rip the ball out.

It was from one such ruck that Hemel drove through and hacked the ball virtually the length of the pitch to score out wide but converted with a well struck kick.

It was now we started to hit rucks harder and faster and got more quick ball allowing Steve to release Reece,

who was having a one of his best games for a long time, every time he got the ball he made hard yards and was rewarded with a try near the posts after the forwards, Elliot and Steve gave him quick ball but he still had a lot to and crashed over with 2 or 3 Hemel players hanging on, Chris converted.

From the restart Hitchin continued to pressure Hemel but struggled to convert pressure into points, when suddenly the ball was released and moved with quick hands for Will Jay to burst onto a pass a real pace to outstrip the cover defence and score under the posts, again Chris converted.

Second half continued in the same vain, but lack of discipline saw us concede a penalty around the 10- metre line which the scored from. Then as the game was starting to open up as players tired there was a ruck close to the touch line, where Hitchin really cleared it out, and were away, unfortunately there was what appeared to be a serious injury to one of the two Hemel players who were at the bottom of the ruck, and the game was stopped to allow treatment, as it happened the injury required an ambulance and it was felt by both coaches that the game should be abandoned with about 25 minutes to go.

My man of the match was Reece, for his work rate and direct running.
Things to work on – more players getting to the breakdown, not loitering in the backs.