Heavy Going at Datchworth

« Old Hamptonians v Hitchin | Main | Hitchin U16 15 v Hemel U16 7 »

Three hard-fought games played in excellent spirit in the Datchworth - Hitchin - Welwyn triangular.

Hitchin 10 – 7 Datchworth
(Joe Rose-Grey, Euan Dixon-Earle)
A very tight first half with both teams tackling well and struggling to gain the upper hand in the mud bath masquerading as a pitch.
After the break, Hitchin pressed forward to cut down Datchworth’s space, a tactic which meant we spent most of the time in their half. It was from this pressure that we won the penalty from which Joe Rose-Grey crashed through to score. Unfortunately Foxy missed the conversion – his first miss of the year – but we kept up the pressure and eventually Euan found some firm ground away from the cloying mud to speed in from halfway.
The conversion was missed again but it didn’t affect the result even when Datchworth broke away to score with about the last move of the match.

Hitchin 0 – 7 Welwyn

After Welwyn had comfortably beaten Datchworth the pitch was even more of a quagmire.
We rearranged our scrum to try to counter Welwyn’s huge pack and, although we were initially driven backwards, we kept at it and eventually managed to hold our own. We defended for most of the match, but did so well, preventing any score in the first half. Although Foxy had missed some conversions, his clearance kick to half way from behind our try line saved a certain score.
In the second half we took the game to Welwyn with Bryony and Joe Rose-Grey competing well in the loose. A tactical substitution, bringing on an even larger prop for a five meter scrum, meant that Welwyn won the ball and were able to burst over to score. We kept trying but just couldn’t find a way through to level the match.

A fantastic effort with remarkably good handling skills considering the extremely muddy conditions. Some of our team play was excellent though we would benefit immensely from better communication. It was a great achievement to beat Datchworth and limit the huge Welwyn team – last year’s Festival champions – to just one score.

Player of the week: Bryony Pomfret.