Datchworth Under 11’s versus Hertford & Saracens

On a cold and frosty winter’s morning, we headed to Hertford RFC for the three way fixture with them and Saracens. With much bigger squads, they were both able to field 2 teams, meaning they only played 3 games each team to our 4 as we had just one team. This was to take its toll later in the morning.

First up were Saracens B’s, and our lads were on fire. Some superb play making across the pitch, and excellent running, driving and rucking meant we were worthy winners by the final whistle. 2 tries came from William Field through some excellent running and side stepping, a powerful try from Aidan who again was showing his strength all morning, and there was a lovely offload from William Goff in the tackle to Issac Byrne for him to power his way through to touch down for his try. The defence was also superb, with tackle after tackle coming in from Joshua Staddon in particular, but all the boys put in their fair share of tackles.

After only a couple of minutes rest, we were up again, this time against Hertford A’s. This proved to be a matter of us not being able to get any ball at all, as Hertford were excellent in the breakdown, and just rucked over us time and time again. Their speed to get bodies in to clear out our lads, and then spiriting the ball away very quickly was a lesson for us. When we did get the ball we had some nice passages of play making a lot of ground through a mix of well-timed passes and powerful drives, but we just couldn’t break their lines at all. In the end, it was a loss this time 4-0 to Hertford A’s, with William Field the first injury of the day with a badly twisted ankle.

We were then able to have a rest for 15-20 minutes where we could spend some time on our rucking practice, and then we were up against Hertford B’s. This was another great display by our boys as we were able to keep much more ball and do something with it! Joshua Staddon was able to make it over the line for a well-deserved try, as had been tackling solidly all day and warranted a reward! Finlay also made several great runs, and once he remembered that going forwards was better than sideways, he was able to touch down twice for the team with some superb long runs. Defensively we were strong once again with Spike Howard also putting in a fine tackling display as well as several others, and we were able to keep another clean sheet with a 3-0 win.

By now the boys were exhausted, but we had one last game against Saracen’s A’s. We had lost Thomas Beechey to injury in the last game, and Joshua Moffatt had to leave, so we were really running on empty. It was decided to play just one 10 minute half, and unfortunately that meant our lads were also playing up hill for the duration! The boys played with heart and determination, but Saracens A’s were just too strong for us by now. Again some big hit tackles went in from Joshua Staddon, Spike Howard, William Goff and Isaac Byrne to name a few, and we lost William Goff through a big tackle which I think will remind him in future to get himself low with a hulking great attacker running at you with pace. At least he stopped the attack though, and got straight back up to keep defending before falling like a sack of spuds once the whistle blew a few seconds later! Sadly it ended 5-0 to Saracens A’s and while it was a shame to end on a low, there is absolutely nothing for the boys to be down about, as they gave every game 100%, and played with passion and heart throughout. We were all very proud of their performances as coaches and parents.

For showing his impact off the bench including some great runs and tackling skills, Spike Howard took the Player of the Week trophy.