A Windy Sunday morning greeted us in Datchworth, as we headed up the A1 for our third League match of the season.

The weather conditions dictated our tactics in the first half as we played up the hill against the wind. We started fast & took many of our opportunities to move the ball through the hands in testing conditions and put our wingers into great one on one positions, where they used their pace & scored some long range tries.

The whole team competed well at the break downs, showing some of the best rucking skills this year. This enabled quick, go forward ball controlled well by Eddie who marshalled his forwards well into the contact areas & moved the ball on to Luke & the backs. In one of Theo’s tries the ball was secured by pressure from the forwards on the left wing & moved confidently through the hands via Santos, Jordan & the centres to Theo on the right wing who powered his way to score from 60 Yards out. Once again the boys have raised the bar & it was probably the best 22 mins of 15 man rugby we’ve played this season, however a lapse in concentration, aided by the strong wind near the end of the half allowed the Datch boys to crash over from 10 yards.

After, a quicker than usual turnaround at half-time we changed some of the team around to give our travelling Subs an opportunity to impress. We again, started fast imposing our game on the Datch boys but unfortunately couldn’t maintain the same high standards as we found it difficult playing with the slope & wind. The Datch boys competed better at the break downs which gave them a huge lift in confidence & they built some pressure of their own. Add to this we gave away a couple of penalties, which although debateable decisions, (the ref’s decision is final) we were slow to retreat 10 yards & not facing the ball. The Datch scrum half took a quick penalty & they were camped well inside our 22 for 10 mins. We showed some good defensive tackles, led by Coalite who made 4 consecutive chop tackles on the Datch crash ball specialist who was probably twice his size. However the pressure told as once again they crashed over from 10 yards.

Datchworth RFC 10 - 31 Harrow RFC

Tries : Aaron 1, Theo 3, Lawrence 1, Luke Seagon 3 conversions.

A BIG THANK YOU to all the players who turned up & played, It was a great morning of Rugby in the wind and both sets of boys showed great skills in difficult conditions and played the game in the right spirit. There were many positives from the day & number of things to work on to improve further.

Thanks to Jo for arranging all to be in attendance & for Datchworth RFC for being great hosts.