Tough day at the office for Datchworth Under 11's

This week we headed down to Enfield for a 3-way friendly with Old Grammarians and Essex based team Ongar RFC. As OG’s had plenty of players, they formed 2 teams which ensured that we were able to play 3 games during the morning to give everyone plenty of game time. While the weather was dry, the pitches were very wet & muddy underfoot with very long grass, which made for a gruelling morning for the lads.

First up was Old Grammarians “Faith” team, and the story of the match was too many missed tackles on our part unfortunately. Rucking was great and we saw some nice flowing rugby, particularly from Finlay who also popped up a perfectly timed pass to Isaac for him to power his way to the line for our only try of the match. Joshua Staddon’s driving into contact, coupled with his and Spencer Bayford’s tackling skills saved us from a heavier defeat, but it was disappointing to give OG’s some soft tries simply by us not committing to the tackles. Some strong rucking from Matthew and a great run from William Goff was not enough however to make the difference, as the match ended 15-5 to OG’s Faith.

After a short break we were up again against OG’s, this time against the team they decided to call “Duty”. With some fresh legs on the pitch from Datch, and maybe benefitting from a weaker OG’s side than their first, as well as the pep talk from the coaches in-between games, we put on a much more impressive display. With some perfect passages of play by our players drawing in the defender before making a pop pass to the supporting player, we scythed through the opposition defence, crossing the line several times through Finlay (2), William Bacon (1) and Spencer (1). A fantastic jinking run from Thomas Paine virtually the whole length of the pitch saw him cross the line too, making it a 25-10 win to Datch. He also put in a great display in terms of tackling with some excellent try saving tackles, and the whole team stepped up their tackling effort, including Benjamin and Aidan who are really getting more confident in their games of late.

Our final game was against Ongar, who appeared to have some very tall, fast & powerful lads, who made their physical differences count as they went 15-0 up by the half time whistle. Again some sterling tackling went in from many players including Joshua who made a huge impact from the bench, and Spencer, Finlay and William Goff to name a few. Thomas Beechey made some great ground by bouncing off tackles, and Isaac crossed the line twice in his usual driving fashion for our only tries of the game. Final score was 20-10 to Ongar.

Some great rugby from the lads this morning, but as always some areas to work on, in particular making sure we make those tackles, and by keeping hold of the ball in contact. As usual, the parents’ Player of the Week was very close, but finally it went deservedly to Finlay who made some great runs, some excellent support play, and stayed fresh for all 3 games – well done Finlay.