U14s - Huddersfield Vs Barnsley

Barnsley 3 v Huddersfield 36

This weeks game at Shaw Lane in Round 1 of the Yorkshire Plate Competition was against Huddersfield RUFC who made the trip across country through a torrential downpour. Thankfully both the wind and rain abated somewhat before the kick off, but with temperatures remaining barely above freezing it was not a day to be enjoyed from the touchline. Despite this the home team were buoyed by recent results and were looking forward to a closely contested game of rugby against their West Yorkshire neighbours.

With the game underway, the visitors showed their intent in playing a full part in the contest as they pinned the young griffins back into their own half. Good defensive organisation from Barnsley and resolute tackling from the likes of Luke Townsend made sure that Huddersfield contested every inch of progress across the gain line. In the scrum, Ben Thistlewood and Sam Atkinson were made to work extremely hard to stop the wheeling; and given the tensions in the front row it wasn’t long before the referee was lecturing Fred Butcher and his counterpart from Huddersfield about the ‘dark arts’ of the scrum.

Nonetheless when the ball was made available to scrum half Jack Yeardley, his interlinking play with Josh and Jack Smith, given the weather, was some of the best they have produced all season and alongside Jacob Lawton’s kicking game, which continues to improve week on week, Barnsley were able to withstand the early pressure.

Then at about the 15 minute mark, Huddersfield were able to create an overlap to go over for the first unconverted points of the morning. Straight from the restart, Jordan Darwin collected the ball cleanly and set off upfield. Several phases of play later and the referee blew his whistle for an infringement directly in front of the Huddersfield posts, from which Jordan Gray stepped forward to convert for Barnsley’s first points of the game, which left them trailing 5 v 3 at half time.

The second half saw the introduction of Sam Owen and with the two teams closely matched, the game was poised for an exciting finale.

With the second half underway, Huddersfield seized the early initiative from the young Griffins as they created another overlap to go over for their second try of the game. As the half wore on the back three partnership of Paul Kelly, Adam Fretwell and Michael Limb were being called upon to do more defensive work as Huddersfield began to gain the upper hand,; and despite their resolute tackling and regular clearing of the lines it wasn’t long before the tries for Huddersfield were coming along like town centre buses.

A series of unfortunate injuries late on saw the introduction of both Aaron Westmoreland and Joe Marsden into the fray and as the young Griffins tried to galvanise a response to the Huddersfield pressure, they was an excellent try saving tackle from Jordan Darwin who stopped the Huddersfield winger just yards from the try line and forcing him to spill the ball in the process. They was also some excellent spirited driving play from Jacob Bailey and Kyle Holmes, but all in all, it was too little too late, as Huddersfield ran out deserved conquerors in a 36 v 3 victory.

Barnsley Man of the Match awards went to Ben Thistlewood (Forwards) and Paul Kelly (Backs)