The third game of the season for The Hague Barbarians (the clustered junior rugby team consisting of players from Wassenaar Warriors and Voorburgse Rugby Club) was played at one of our home grounds at Wassenaar on Saturday 1st October against the HRC 3 cluster team.

The weather was kind to us with the heavy rain stopping in the morning and the sun coming out for our game. This also attracted lots of parents and family members to the game and it was great to see so many people cheering The Barbarians on.

The Barbarians scored almost straightaway, spreading the ball to the wings for Temelko Brown to go over in the corner. With a missed conversion the score was 5-0 after 2 minutes. HRC responded straightway and there was some fantastic defending from The Barbarians as they stopped them from scoring 3 times as the ball went from wing to wing and The Barbarians tackling them nearly on the tryline!

HRC ultimately lost the ball and shortly afterwards Matt McCoy scored our 2nd try with Krijn Elfrink converting to bring the score to 12-0 after 7 mins. HRC weren’t going to let us have everything our own way though and scored their first try from a scum on the 17 min mark and again a couple of minutes later when their winger ran around several of our players to touchdown in the corner. This levelled the game at 12-12. Renzo den Boer broke that deadlock though – crossing over right on the half time whistle with Krijn converting to bring the half time score to 19-12. Matt McCoy crossed again 5 mins into the 2nd half when the Barbarians had a scrum on the HRC 22. Tijmen Pronk converting to bring the scored to 26-12. Both sides were well matched, HRC attacking well and The Barbarians defending solidly stopping them from getting anywhere. We had a number of scrums from both sides with The Barbarians scrums staying solid and performing well. It was Matt McCoy that scored again with quick thinking on the HRC 22. We had a penalty awarded to us and Matt took a quick tap and crashed over the line. Krijn converting to take us to 33-12. Two minutes later it was Matt again chasing his own kick from our half. The ball bounced badly for HRC but nicely for Matt who gathered and scored our last try. Conversion was successful and the scored was 40-12 after 52 mins.

Final Score: The Hague Barbarians: 40 – HRC 3: 12

This was a much more competitive game for us with HRC matching us in many areas. Ultimately it was the fitness and power of The Barbarians that set the 2 teams apart. As often with these match reports we just mention the scorers but rugby is not an individual game. The whole team functioned well and should be very proud of their achievement. The ball handling was good and all of the players were involved in key parts of the games. The defence was excellent with even the smallest players on the pitch putting in multiple try saving tackles. A special word for our twin terrier wingers – Tigo Jansen and Temelko Brown – they were probably the smallest on the pitch but never stepped back when tackling or supporting the other players. A great coaching point was that we were also adapting our game to counter the attack plans of HRC. Our flankers working tirelessly throughout the game getting the ball quickly out to the wings from the scrums setting up another area of attack. On a learning point – we were warned during the game for forward charge from a very active front row. The coaches will be focusing our techniques to ensure we play more into space and safer play.

The result sees us top the pool with maximum points after 3 games. We’ve still 2 important games ahead though with us travelling to Wageningen next week for our next game. Still all to play for in this stage of the competition.

Stephen Brown
Match reporter

1 Comment

  1. Elco on October 3, 2022 at 8:35 am

    Thanks Stephen for the nice report! It was a great game to watch. The camaraderie between the teams afterwards was great to experience. I’ll be happy to assist with the meal next time.

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