U14s - Barnsley Vs Castleford

Barnsley 12 v Castleford 29

With a change of venue due to pitch availability, Barnsley hosted their counterparts and regular combatants from Castleford at Shaw Lane this weekend. Despite the torrential downpours through the week the playing surface was in good condition and in accordance with the true spirit of the game Barnsley loaned two players to complete the visitor’s line-up.

With the game underway, both sides struggled in the early exchanges to come to terms with the greasy conditions and gain early dominance. Despite the temporary loss of two of their key forwards, Luke Townsend and Jordan Darwin; Barnsley still maintained the upper hand in the set piece with Sam Owen being particularly effective in the scrum. There were the usual rampaging runs from Jordan Gray and Jacob Bailey along with some excellent covering tackles from Kyle Holmes. The spiky haired Eddie Fox continued to grow in confidence and display his potential with ball in hand; and if Fred Butcher continues to scavenge as much loose ball week on week, he will surely earn and deserve his newly acquired title of ‘the can-man’.

Although it was the visitors who took an early lead through an excellent display of running and handling skills, it wasn’t long before the scores were level following a protracted period of Barnsley forward possession and dominance, when Fred Butcher picked up and dived over his team mates to touchdown for Barnsley’s first points of the game.

The remainder of the first half continued in the same vein. Castleford looked dangerous whenever their backs found themselves in space. A special mention must be made regarding their fly-half, who must have the most powerful and accurate kicking boot in this age group. In contrast Barnsley looked the team more likely to score when the forwards gained possession; and so it proved as the team set up a rolling maul on Sam Owen to push (and in the case of some players….drag) him over the line to level the scores once more, following a Jordan Gray conversion.

With the scores level the second half got under way. Adam Fretwell looked assured under the barrage of high balls put up by Castleford and to that end Jacob Lawton looked composed with his own punted ripostes. Josh Smith was relishing the chance to get dirty (nothing to do with his large phone bill) through the tackles he put in and Jack Yeardley was distributing the ball well despite the conditions.

Nonetheless, Castleford looked the more determined and energetic team as the game ebbed and flowed and went on to score a further three unanswered second half tries to give a final score of 29 v 12.

At the games conclusion there was some unwavering praise from both the boys and coaches of Castleford for the Barnsley lads who had swapped teams in order to ensure a fair game took place.

For the third week in succession Barnsley went away without a victory in a fixture that could have gone either way. In the weeks to come the efforts, concentration and determination shown in these games will no doubt come to fruition as without doubt the corner is clearly being turned, points are being scored and the games are real contests. The next three fixtures, starting with Leodiensians next weekend will be acid tests of the boys development and character. We await them in eager anticipation.

Barnsley Man of the Match awards went to Eddie Fox (Forwards) and Josh Smith (Backs).

1. Sam Owen
2. Fred Butcher
3. Ben Thistlewood
4. Jacob Bailey
5. Sam Atkinson
6. Eddie Fox
7. Kyle Holmes
8. Jordan Gray
9. Jack Yeardley
10. Jacob Lawton
11. Connor Semley
12. Josh Smith (Captain)
13. Paul Kelly
14. Aaron Westmoreland
15. Adam Fretwell

Loaned to Castleford:

Luke Townsend
Jordan Darwin