Luton Away (+Northampton Casuals)

« Hitchin U17 43 v Beford U17 7 | Main | Teams Selected for Sat 19th Jan »

Played 4 Won 2 Lost 2

“A” Squad
Andrew, Ashley, Ben, Daniel, Frazer, George, Jack, Maitiu, Max, Oliver P, Oliver S (OJ),
Hitchin “A” 4 v 1 Northampton Casuals
Max, Ashley, Oliver P, Ben

A very blowy morning next to the M1 road works and with Jets roaring in the distance, after take-off. Hitchin played 4 matches, with the teams fairly evenly split. The team with most “A” players opened up against N’ton Casuals, the “B” played the hosts, Luton. Master Baker Andy was given a pen and paper and told to record the Casuals game. We won 4-1, with Max, Oliver P, Ashley and Ben scoring.

“B” squad Aaron, Aless, Connor, Christian, Russell, Sam C, Taylor, Toby, Tom, William.

Luton 7 v 1 Hitchin “B”
Christian

Taylor and Russell were driving with great force here, but it was mostly one way traffic. The home backs were far sharper in their passing and once in space, usually scored. We did try to put together some good phases and a watching Dave Marshall did praise the effort. Many penalties were awarded to us, but we could not break the line. Connor and Tom put in some fine tackles to thwart the hosts. 2-0 at HT. Straight from the re-start Luton made it 3-0 then 4 and 5. Finally, Christian gave us hope with a strong run for 5-1 but 2 more tries made it 7-1 at the close! Brave defence was not enough to stop these tearaways and more tackling will need to be done next week.

Luton 6 v 1 Hitchin “A”Ashley

An almost carbon copy of the “B” match, with only Ashley scoring for us. His never say die attitude is certainly one for others to copy, but offloading can be improved.

Hitchin “B” 4 v 2 N’ton Casuals
Christian 2, Tom 2.

A similar score to the “A” match, which, combined with the losses to Luton, shows that there is little to choose between the squads. It was decided to play equal squads in Triangular matches, but go for more definite A/ B teams for single fixtures and tournaments. It certainly is to the benefit of the team that more players are being integrated into the set-up and are learning quickly.
The Casuals had a much bigger, slower team who were very petulant and their parents were very unpleasant to Colin (ref) and I after the game. I was threatened to be “decked” if I looked at a “lady” a certain way again (by the “lady”) I explained that as team manager, I had a duty to understand what had happened and that I was merely looking puzzled as to why there were 4 angry “ladies” surrounding the ref. The Casuals assistant coach was very uninterested in the matter, presumably because a/. he had heard it all before and b/. there was no case to answer. Colin remains a kind and extremely fair referee who does not need this unfair treatment. (The Casuals had not supplied a ref).
Anyway to the game, a very exciting affair with some excellent play from all of the Hitchin players. Christian scored twice in the match, with good pace and ripping skills. Taylor was industrious, Connor got into the game well and Aaron was very busy at the coal face. Tom made a good pick up from a line-out to scamper away. A N’ton trip was dealt with by the ref. 1-0 at HT. After the break, Tom went to scrum half and enjoyed a “player of the day “ winning” performance. William, at Fly half and Bradley ran very well, with Sam C and others making good tackles.(still lots to do in practice though) Russell was looking like Raphael Ibanez as he forced his way up field. Ollie P came on for Christian. Tom ripped the ball away from a large N’ton player to score an excellent try. Colin was now enduring back chat from the N’ton players, but another score made it 4-2 at the end. A brief training game was then held, but with time running out, we headed off for hot dogs.

Players of the day “ A” team Ollie P & for the “B” team Tom. Training next week will have Mick Carey working with the forwards on Scrummaging, using the machine!