No slip-ups at HRC – Wassenaar Warriors International Rugby Club

The half term holidays seem to come around thick ‘n’ fast nowadays and with depleted squad sizes affecting all regional clubs, it resulted in a fixture change from Sparta to HRC, allowing us to play on their new all-singing, all-dancing 4G pitches. Whilst the Minis were fielding only one squad, we had more than enough substitutes to share with other teams; Jamal, Leyla, Daniel (H) and Arthur kindly offering (under duress actually but hey… C’est la vie) their services to Hermes and Gouda, who were struggling for numbers.

William cuts in to wrong foot the HRC players

The Minis first game was against the hosts; HRC, which was a combination of HRC1 & HRC4 or should I say, what remain of the two squads. Heavy rain earlier in the morning had made the new 4G pitches very slippery, which lead to lots of handling errors and some players losing their footing. Some dodgy field marking saw William ground the ball in the dead ball area. In the Mini’s next attack, William lost his footing on the slippery surface when clean through to score. The numerous handling errors didn’t stop the Minis being 3 up at half time, as they dominated possession. In the second half, the Mini’s continued where they left off, with HRC now making the majority of mistakes and the tries soon racked up. Tries from William, Daniel, Duncan and Jamie completed a second half blitz for an 8-0 win.

The Mini’s next game was against Gouda, who had given the Minis a tough game at the Hookers the previous week. Gouda were immediately under pressure from some solid defensive work from Andrea, Alexander, David and Cammy, who quickly closed down the spaces. On standard size pitches (which means normal sizes to us!), this played into the Minis hands with Louis, William, Joaquin and Daniel doing the damage down the wings for a 7-0 win and another clean sheet.

Andrea on another drive forward

After a 1 ½ minute break, the Minis played their last game against new opponents; Hermes Dvs RC, who were fielding familiar faces; Jamal, Daniel (H) & Arthur. The dozing Minis conceded from the Hermes first attack while still chomping on their cookies. Whilst the Mini’s energy and intensity dropped from their previous games, they dominate; what was largely a scrappy game played through the middle. The most entertaining moments being Leyla taking some big hits from her brother Jamal… brotherly love ha? After going in at half time 1-3 down, Hermes crumbled like a pack of cards after William intercepted a square pass to score through the middle. But it was Hermes who had the last hurrah, score down the wing in the last play. Final score; 7-2.