Hitchin Colts 12 - Norwich 5

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Hitchin Colts beat Norwich in national competition.
Hitchin RFC Colts 12 – Norwich RFC 5 (Oh and no Mr. Frisch on the sidelines either – what a match to miss!!)

NOTE NO MATCH OR TRAINING ON SUNDAY 9TH DECEMBER SO YOU CAN HAVE SOME FUN ON SATURDAY!!!

NEXT ROUND IN THE PLATE IS A MATCH VS CHELMSFORD ON SUNDAY 16TH DECEMBER AT CHELMSFORD, KICK OFF 12.30 P.M. SO MR. FRISCH WOULD LIKE YOU TO STAY IN THE NIGHT BEFORE AND GET SOME BEAUTY SLEEP!!!

(Check the Comet this week – you might just be in it!)

Hitchin Colts beat Norwich in national competition.
Hitchin RFC Colts 12 – Norwich RFC 5 (Oh and no Mr. Frisch on the sidelines either – what a match to miss!!)

Thick mud, a bitingly cold wind, fortunately no rain, and we had the ingredients required to spur Hitchin Colts on to victory against Norwich on Sunday in the English Clubs Colts Plate. Hitchin played good attacking rugby from kick-off and playing into the wind they drove the play up into Norwich’s 22, forcing them to defend hard.

Eventually, Norwich came back into the game and pressed forward, forcing Hitchin to defend their line heroically. The Norwich forwards were very powerful and had Hitchin under pressure but the home side made the most of every opportunity and worked back into the attack. Working well as a team, Hitchin kept chiseling away at Norwich’s defence until the opportunity arose to break through, giving Christie Caldwell the chance to make a sneaky dash for the line. An excellent well-deserved try, unfortunately not converted due to the wind. Hitchin 5 – Norwich 0

There followed some excellent flowing play from both sides. Norwich turned on the heat and the two sides were well matched giving a good, exciting game to watch. Norwich made the most of their opportunities as Hitchin gave away a few silly penalties and, with the wind behind them, Norwich were able to make their kicks count and Hitchin found themselves defending in their own 22. Norwich’s forwards showed their superior strength in the scrums and mauls resulting in a try to level the scores at 5-5 at half time.

By this time the mud was making it difficult to tell who was who! The second half saw Hitchin raise their game a gear resulting in some lovely running rugby, excellent tackling and some quick thinking action. Play rolled between the two halves and there was little to tell between the two sides. As the game started to draw to a close Norwich looked to be going onto the next round as the “away” side in a draw but a superb kick out of danger from Sam Wilson put Hitchin on the attack again resulting in a fabulous try by James Bolter under the posts (what a smile on his face!), duly converted by James Parker to make the score Hitchin 12 – Norwich 5.
Hitchin played out the remainder of the game in the Norwich half and now face Chelmsford in the next round of this national competition.

All the lads played their part in the victory with some excellent tackling and lineout work, good runs and brilliant pick ups. JP was deservedly named man of the match for his superb performance, he had a ‘cracking game’! Stewart McIntosh deserves a mention here for his ‘skid’! Highly entertaining! He ran, dropped to his knees, skidded across the mud on his knees, picked up the ball and got back on his feet. Awesome! Tom Lawman deserves a mention too for his perfect impersonation of Fran Cotton in that ‘muddy photo’ – only his hair was clean when he took the scrum cap off! It was also really good to hear the lads communicating - well done Rob Corr for giving some excellent Scrummy advice and Sam Wilson for all your yelling from the back! Andrew’s mum’s been away (she’s being sold for a goat or some such) bet he enjoyed doing his washing!

TRAINING AS USUAL TUESDAY AND THURSDAY EVENINGS WITH THE SENIORS AT 7.30 P.M.