Herts Festival - U12 Cup

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A great day out, tremendous spirit and courage from all the players and a privilege for the parents to see what a strong and united bunch of players the U12’s have become.

Group 1 – Hitchin, Cheshunt, Old Albanians, Royston

Hitchin v Old Albanians Won 5 – 0

Our preparation for this game was excellent. A good warm up, a few well chosen words particularly expressing the fact that Bryony and Hannah were playing their last seriously competitive game for the U12’s, and a reminder that this was a crunch game, OA’s having trounced us in the tournament at their place a few weeks back.

From the start we were more focused than the opposition who we caught cold and perhaps with a touch of complacency thinking we would be a walkover – anything but !
In a 7 minute half there was no room for mistakes and we showed great passing skills and stood firm in the scrums. George and Bryony were prominent in the early mauls, and with Harry looking back to his best, OA’s were on the back foot.

It was from quick scrum ball that Harry found time to weigh his options and instead of chipping ahead saw an inside gap open up which he sprinted through to make it 5 – 0 at half time.

An unfortunate injury to Hannah saw Reece on as substitute, the second half turning into a fierce contest with ever more manic urgings from the OA’s coaches, realizing that time was running out for them to start their festival with a win.

A great victory and a credit to the guts and character of all the team.

Hitchin v Royston Won 10 - 0

A supercharged start saw James Aylott score twice in quick succession, and set up what we hoped might be a big total to help the points difference.

Instead we became bogged down in a torrid sequence of rucks and mauls, the lack of opportunity to give Euan, Charlie and Mitchell a good run being evident in their frustration with the sweaty lads in the pack.

Perhaps not the best game plan but another win, and still no tries conceded.

Hitchin v Cheshunt Lost 0 - 5

What a match, another titanic effort in the face of a very strong Cheshunt side who had already rattled up a maximum score against Royston, but had then lost by one score to OA’s.

We were fighting against our points differential and a close eye was kept on the adjacent pitch where OA’s and Royston were battling away and a few muted cheers were raised when Royston scored.

Back to our game and the constant surging by the huge Cheshunt centre finally breeched our defenses, but only the once, and again the sheer determination of the Hitchin team prevented any greater score. By this time another injury had shorn us of James’s services and our thoughts were with him and Hannah as our reserves were whittled away.

Group result – with three sides all winning twice, it all came down to points difference. Cheshunt won the group with +30, Hitchin were pronounced as runners up with +10, having conceded one less try than OA’s, who had a points differential of +5. Fantastic – through to the Semi Final of the Bowl Competition.

Hitchin v Stevenage Draw 0 – 0.

In a match where Hitchin had by far the better possession and opportunities it was gut wrenching to know that the result and decision as to who went through to the final would be decided by the toss of a coin.

Well, Stevenage got that bit right and judging by their demonic celebrations, hooping and hollering they knew they were fortunate – no sour grapes eh…….

Next weekend, we're at St Neots - please be there by 9.30am ( see the Forum for more details).