Plucky Datchworth Lack Clinical Edge

Datchworth hosted Grasshoppers on Saturday looking to get their home record back to winning ways after losing to Fullerians. However, with forwards Mark Holgate and Matthew Francis still unavailable, and Stuart Young failing a late fitness test, the Men in Green were unable to convert possession into tries and fell short.

The Villagers promoted their one-club philosophy for the game, with the club’s mini-section present to watch, support and provide pre-match entertainment on a crisp, winter’s afternoon. But it was the visitors who started the stronger, and opened up the scoring with a penalty to lead 0-3.

In a game which was almost entirely fought in the middle of the pitch, Datchworth’s superiority in the scrum, where stand-in second row David Bartlett was jointly named Man of the Match with Marcus Potter, was evened out by Grasshoppers dominance in the line-out. It was Datchworth that created the first meaningful moment of the match, when from a scrum the back line spread the ball out wide to James Watt, who ran down the wing and passed inside to Sam Brunton to score, yet the try was disallowed as Watt was adjudged to have a foot touching the touchline.

From the resulting line-out, a penalty was awarded to Grasshoppers, who took quickly and ran the length of the pitch, with sharp off-loading and ball handling skills to score in the opposite corner and take an 0-8 lead going into half-time.
Datchworth came out in the second-half with the bit between their teeth, and despite an unusually inconsistent performance with the boot from Tom Wood, the captain slotted over two penalties to take the game to 6-8.

A further period of the game was then fought in the middle of the field, with Martin Atkinson, making his first start for the first XV, playing well in open play, and the ever-present Matt Winters constantly attempting to make inroads in midfield. Tom Bennett was ever reliable under the high ball at full-back and Joe Richardson allowed no metres to be gained down the right wing with his superb tackling.

Grasshoppers eventually broke through the Datchworth defence though, after a kick into the home team’s territory. From the resulting line-out, Grasshoppers hit their forward runners, with their No.8 controversially touching down to make it 6-13, despite their being desperate cries of no downward pressure. A further blow was dealt to the Villagers as Henry Mountain sustained a repeat injury to his shoulder in the melee which could see him miss several weeks.

With only moments left in the game, Datchworth desperately marched back into the visitor’s territory, but were unable to find any more momentum, and the whistle eventually blew, with the home side feeling ultimately disappointed to only walk away with 1 point from a closely fought encounter.

Next week see’s the Men in Green take on fierce rivals Welwyn, looking to do the double , having been the only team to beat the Hobbs Way side this season.