The Hague Barbarians (the combined junior team from Wassenaar Warriors, WRC Te Werve and Voorburgse Rugby Club) played The Waterweg Warriors on Saturday at RWC Te Werve – one of our home grounds.

The Waterweg Warriors had a lot of players missing due to Covid so the game was being played with uncontested scrums from the start. The weather was bright but chilly with a strong wind blowing across the pitch, especially in the first half.

The Barbarians kicked off and immediately forced a handling error from The Warriors. From the scrum on the 22 metres our no. 8 Matt McCoy, took off and put the ball over in the corner. Jesper Verbeek missed the difficult conversion but The Barbarians were ahead 5-0 after 2 minutes.

The Barbarians put the pressure on for the first half. The Warriors fumbling the ball a lot resulting in a lot of scrums. Some good attacking play from the Barbarians and they almost scored again after 15 mins but it was disallowed for a double movement.

The Warriors fought back though and scored just before half time. Again the wind and a corner position made it difficult for them to convert the try leaving the half time scored tied at 5-5.
The second half saw a change in tactics from the Warriors as they crashed the ball through the middle and put pressure on the Barbarians. Some great defence from the Barbarians saw them turn over the ball several times but repeatedly kick the ball away and hand the possession back to the Warriors.

For a large stretch of the 2nd half the Barbarians didn’t make it out of their own half. The pressure from the Warriors was in the end too much. The Barbarians conceded a penalty with 10 mins to go which was missed by the Warriors. 6 minutes later The Warriors were awarded another penalty right in front of the posts which they slotted over nicely.

Final Score: The Hague Barbarians 5 – The Waterweg Warriors 8

The game was a very evenly fought contest. Both teams were evenly matched and possession flowed from one to the other throughout the first half. In the end it was the The Waterweg Warriors that put the most pressure on during the second half. The Barbarians could be proud of their defensive efforts but, as the rugby cliché goes, you can only score when you have the ball and the The Waterweg Warriors kept the ball for a large part of the second half. The Barbarians didn’t help themselves by kicking away the ball and returning it to the The Waterweg Warriors again and again.

This brought the Barbarians winning streak to an end. They did pick up a bonus point and currently lie third in the Shield Pool C competition. Next week sees the team travel to Nieuwe Vennep for the first game versus Hawks/Houtsche.

Read more about the Junioren Shield poule C, 3e fase here.

Stephen Brown
Match reporter

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