Cambridge Match Report

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Sunday we hosted Cambridge on a cold, windy November morning, thankfully there was no rain !!!! We had a successful morning, playing 3 matches, winning 2 and drawing the other. As Cambridge only had the one team we had a triangular event, with our two teams playing Cambridge twice (well that was the plan !!!). Unfortunately, Cambridge had to leave early so the Jaguars did not get to play their second game, instead we had a training match to finish the morning.

Hitchin Panthers v Cambridge: Won 6-4

A good first game of the morning with both teams playing some fine rugby. Hitchin started the game really well and created an early 3-1 lead with two excellent individual tries by Ethan B. and Connor. There was also a good team try for Ethan B. created by a fine run from Rory and good support and passing by Alex and Holly. Cambridge then got back into the game when some poor tagging by us allowed them to score two tries. However, we responded well to this and finished the half strongly with a well taken try by Connor following some good running and support play by Ethan B. & Naomh. The second half was still close and we had to defend well at times with some good tagging by Guy and Sam. We scored two further tries, a fine individual try from Guy and an excellent team try by Connor to record a good win.

Hitchin Jaguars v Cambridge: Draw 2-2

This was a well contested match with the Jaguars performing well against a Cambridge team that had already played a game. Again Hitchin started well and there was an excellent individual try from Ethan L. to give us an early lead. There then was a period of tight play with both teams creating chances, but not quite finishing them off. There was some excellent running and dodging by Henry and some fine support and passing by Harry & Laurence. There was also some good tagging by Dylan & Chris. Then just before half time Harry scored an excellent individual try to give us a 2-1 lead. The second half was again very tight with both teams coming close to scoring on a number of occasions, however it was Cambridge who scored late on to snatch the draw.

Hitchin Panthers v Cambridge: Won 5-3

The second Panthers match was another good game of rugby. The first half was very even with both teams creating a number of chances. We scored an excellent team try for Rory with some fine support play by Guy and Alex and there was a very good individual try from Sam. At half time the match was tied at 2-2, but in the second half we played some excellent rugby. We defended a lot better in this half, gave them very few chances to score and forced them into making mistakes. This meant we had a lot of attacking ball and from this we were able to create three excellent scores. There was a very good team try for Connor, following fine running and passing from Naomh & Sam. An excellent individual score from Ethan B and another good try to finish the game from Connor.

Hitchin Reds v Hitchin Yellows: Yellows won 3-2

The final game of the morning was a training match between the two Hitchin sides. The Panthers and Jaguars were mixed up with a similar number of experienced and less experienced players and this resulted in a good even game to finish the morning. The yellows started well and there was a good team try for Guy, with some fine passing and support play by Harry & Euan. The reds responded well and there were two excellent individual tries from Ethan L and Ethan B along with some good running and passing by Dylan & Laurence. Henry then scored an excellent try for the yellows with some fine dodging and running, so the scores were level at 2-2. The final play of the game resulted in the winning try for the yellows by Connor. This was a well worked team try created by some good running and passing by Henry and it was a good way to finish the morning.

Tries: Ethan B (4), Connor (6), Sam, Rory, Ethan L. (2), Henry, Guy (2) & Harry

Overall another good morning with two wins and a draw against a good Cambridge side, however I did not think we played as well as two weeks ago at Ampthill – may be it was the cold weather !!!!! The Panthers had two good wins and I was particular pleased with their second half performance in their second game. I was disappointed Cambridge left early and the Jaguars only played them once, as I would have liked to have seen them play again, however they did well in their match and it was good to introduce some more new players to their first games. We still need to work on our tagging as both teams missed a number of tags during the morning, but our support play was better, which was good to see as we worked on this in last weeks training session. One thing I would like to emphasis is that when we have the ball we must run forward, there was a lot of running sideways during the matches. If you run forward and get tagged that is fine as you can then pass to the next player and therefore as a team we are always moving forward. We will work on a few more things at this weeks training session, but again in general a successful morning – well done to all the players.

Congratulations goes to Frank Hayward, Alfie Cannon & Kai Prpa who played their first game for us and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves.

‘Player of the Week’ went to Henry Tucker this week, for his all round performance in the Jaguars match and the training game. I have seen a marked improvement in Henry’s game in the past few weeks and this was very evident today as he was prominent in both the games he played. I was particularly impressed with his running and dodging with ball in hand. He also defended well making a number of tags, which was good to see as he did very well in the tagging exercise at last weeks training session.

This week – Sunday 25th November we have training at the club at the usual time 10.30am.

Well done to all the players and I will see you on Sunday.

Regards

Andy Dudley
Hitchin U7’s Coach
07803 160382