Worth the wait for a convincing win at Datchworth

As the weather warmed up slightly, the Hampstead u13s made their way to Datchworth to make up for a postponed match from pre Christmas. Though further away than our wet Heath pitches, it was a trip back to a pretty idyllic version of English rugby - verdant hills in the background and the quaint rugby / cricket clubhouse swarmed with people on a Sunday morning: truly a religion.

The boys had a good warmup - enjoying the later start I think, and though we were missing some of our regulars the boys were confident coming up to the kickoff. The match started well - building territorial pressure and a lot of first up tackles being made, but a few errors and a scrum that was under the cosh meant that we just couldn’t get a score to reflect that dominance. A great jinking run through the heart of the defence unlocked the datchworth defence though and the boys were off and running, into a burst of some of the best attacking rugby have played this year. Backs tries on both sides, forwards running support lines and scoring, and even probing right then pulling it across to walk in on the left. 6 tries in about 15 mins, and amazingly were actually still not as crisp as would like in the breakdown. Going into the half though, there was a lot to build on.

Datchworth raised their level impressively in the second - hitting rucks with numbers and starting to push the Hampstead team back. Though the tackling was still of a high standard, the territorial game started to shift, and we spent a lot more time in our own half. We were also giving a lot of penalties, across a range of offences (particularly around the breakdown, both in the ruck and the offside line). That combination made it very hard to build attacks, and we were limited to a couple of long range tries to stretch the lead out, and spent a lot of time making tackles. À final sting in the tail, with Datchworth running through a couple of attempted tackles to score under the posts and end the attempted shut out.

Overall though, the boys were convincing winners - and at their best were unplayable. Wrapping up with pasta bake in the clubhouse, we also had a great ceremony with a very well-dressed group of oppo players, including a Hampstead win in the “doughnut of the day“ competition to finish. Thanks to everyone who made the trek and a lot to be happy with given the outcome and the number of places they could still get better.

Author: Andrew Honan (U13s Coach)