The Hague Barbarians (the combined Junior team from Wassenaar Warriors, WRC Te Werve and Voorburgse Rugby Club) played RC Hawk/Houtsche cluster at Nieuw Vennep on the 19th February.

The after affects of Storm Eunice were still blowing hard through at the exposed field at Nieuw Vennep with the wind swirling hard and strong across the pitch. The Barbarians were forced to make a last minute change to the starting line up as their captain and scrum half Syme Ter Bekke tested positive in the morning. Gabriel Bernier slotted in at scrum half and Matt McMoy took over as captain.

The game started well for The Barbarians with Deven Donk driving over after 6 minutes from close range into the corner. Kicking was always going to be difficult in these conditions and the conversion was missed as the ball drifted across the posts at the last minute.

The Hawks/Houtsche responded quickly and scored a try under the posts 4 minutes later – their conversion being successful. 2 more tries followed in quick succession before The Barbarians stretched the Hawks/Houtsche defence and Tigo Jansen sprinted over to give The Barbarians their second try. Unfortunately the Hawks/Houtsche came back immediately and scored another try just before half time in the corner.

Half time: Hawks/Houtsche 22 – The Hague Barbarians 10

The wind picked up even more in the 2nd half and the Hawks/Houtsche kept on attacking scoring their 5th try just after the kick off. Throw-ins from the lineout were being blown off course leaving the teams with no choice but to throw to the front man all of the time, making it easy for the defence to smother the attacks. The Barbarians scored again through Tijmen Pronk 10 mins into the second half bringing the score to 27-15, but the Hawks/Houtsche had the last word scoring 5 minutes later taking the final score to 32-15.

This was a hard match for The Barbarians with the weather conditions making life difficult for both teams. The Barbarians had a few more scoring opportunities but lost the ball before getting over the line. Hawks/Houtsche were the stronger side and adapted a ‘pick and go’ strategy, similar to the Waterweg Warriors did the previous game, the difference here was that The Hawks/Houtsche managed to split The Barbarians defence more with our forwards being stretched across the field and not being able to clear rucks or slow the ball down.

The spirt of the team was still high. Frustration crept in a little towards the end of the match but The Barbarians didn’t give up. There is now a 3 week break before the next match against DIOK 2 at Wassenaar giving the team and the coaches a little time to rebuild and refocus.

Final score: Hawks/Houtsche 32 – The Hague Barbarians 15

Stephen Brown
Match reporter

 

Posted in General, Juniors

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