Hitchin U14 ‘B’ 58 vs Barnet Elizabethans U14 ‘B’ 0 (Friendly)
Team: Charlie, OJ, Maitiu, Huw, Joe, Ashley G, Taylor, George E, George V, Sam, Jordan, Saiful, Will M-W, Will M
Subs: Will J, Dion, James
Tries: George E (x3), Taylor, Saiful, OJ, Will M-W, George V, Maitiu, Huw
Conversions: Sam (4)
A bitterly cold Mothers Day morning saw Hitchin U14 ‘B’ entertain a severely depleted Barnet team for a friendly match. Unfortunately the visitors had many players unavailable for selection but the loan of a few Hitchin players helped to ensure that the match could be played and it started splendidly for the hosts as a quickly taken penalty from George V sent George E straight through the Barnet defence to score in the corner and mark up a very early 5-0 lead. This lead was quickly doubled when a good clearing kick by Barnet into the Hitchin 22 was collected well by Will M-W who followed this up with a fine jinking run before recycling the ball to Taylor. He in turn made good ground in taking the ball forward which coupled with good pressure from Ashley saw the ball fall to Taylor again who got through to score.
The tries then started to follow quickly throughout the half as first Saiful sped through unimpeded to score and then George E again benefited from a quickly penalty by George V to score his second try. Hitchin were totally dominating by now with Zac going on a good run before the next try followed after some great passing play by the hosts eventually saw the ball fall to OJ who got in. Some great kicking by Sam in the conversions also helped to increase Hitchin’s advantage to 31-0 by the midway stage of the first half.
Barnet then came back at Hitchin with a spell in their opponents half but they managed to weather the storm by defending well until an excellent steal by Taylor from a maul saw Hitchin break again. His pass to Ashley saw the ball moved quickly up field and Hitchin looked to be in again but unfortunately the move broke down when George’s delayed pass just failed to find Will J who looked to be clear through. However this wasn’t to matter as directly from the resulting scrum Barnet attempted to kick clear only for Will M-W to mop up the ball brilliantly and jinx into the corner and increase the lead to 36-0. The final try of the half saw George V go over in the corner as Hitchin built up a commanding half time lead. H-T 41-0
The second half saw more of the same as another great run by Zac allowed Maitiu to add his name to the score sheet from a good catch and 30 yard run. A break by George E then freed some space for Zac but he was held up before slipping the ball to Jamie who also came close. Eventually the ball fell to Huw and he didn’t waste the opportunity presented to him to score his first try for the club. This pushed the game further out of the reach of Barnet as the score moved on to 51-0 and Hitchin were soon in the hunt for more points when a rangy run by Jordan moved the ball back near their opponents goal line and Sam also almost found a gap before being held up. The pressure soon told though as George E claimed his third try of the day to increase the lead as another successful conversion by Sam pushed the score to 58-0.
This proved to be the last try of the day and also led to a spell of sloppy play by Hitchin as Barnet attempted salvage something from the game. They came close scoring but Hitchin defended well and were able to hold the ball up until eventually a scrum near the Hitchin try line which the hosts had to defend well was eventually cleared courtesy of a good kick from Sam’s boot. This seemed to wake Hitchin as they took control towards the games end although they were almost caught out when some sloppy passing nearly freed a Barnet player who was away and on for a try before being stopped by a stunning saving tackle by Saiful. FT 58-0
In the end this was a fairly easy run out for the ‘B’ team against an obviously weakened Barnet team but nevertheless Hitchin still played some great rugby and scored some excellent tries too. Hopefully both this match and also their excellent victory against OA’s in their previous match will stand them in good stead for their crucial final league match next week which will almost certainly be a different sort of game altogether.
Man of the Match: Taylor
Honourable mentions to: All the Hitchin players that volunteered to help Barnet by playing for them and ensuring that the game went ahead