U14s - Thornensians Vs Barnsley

Thornensians 12 v Barnsley 8

On a fine Autumnal morning Barnsley U14’s travelled to play local rivals Thornensians in what was to prove a keenly contested and closely matched encounter.

With the return of Jack Smith from injury and the benefits of the Shaw Lane outfits recent school recruitment programme beginning to filter through Barnsley welcomed Adam Fretwell and Sean Powell to the squad for their first starts of the campaign.

Straight from the kick off, the hosts put Barnsley’s defensive line to the test, but through a mixture of good organisation and enthusiastic tackling from the likes of Sam Owen, Sam Atkinson, Jacob Bailey & Co, alongside the tactical kicking of Jacob Lawton the lads were able to hold firm; even when Thorne did manage to break through the line they found themselves either being crushed by the tackling of Luke Townsend or being held up by the long arms of Jordan Darwin. Eventually though the host’s pressure began to tell as Thorne went over for a converted try and the early lead.

It wasn’t all one way traffic though. Barnsley were demonstrating just as much attacking flair as their opponents. Messer’s Jordan Gray, Fred Butcher and Kyle Holmes were more than relishing the physical aspect of Barnsley’s driving play and as a result of the quick ball that was made available, scrum half Jack Yeardley was able to get back’s Sean Powell, Michael Limb and Paul Kelly away consistently over the gain line.

Thorne were by now regularly committing infringements in a desperate attempt to stop Barnsley scoring, but in the end this approach proved fruitless as Jordan Gray kicked Barnsley’s first points of the day.

Another pleasing aspect of the Barnsley game plan was the support play, particularly from the forwards who were hunting in pairs from every phase of play and making impressive gains in territory. But nonetheless when the half time whistle went, Barnsley still trailed 7 v 3.

Second half substitutions saw Ben Thistlewood, Joe Marsden and Dylan Taylor introduced to the play at varying stages and with about fifteen minutes remaining, the turning point of the game arrived as the Referee blew to stop play following an infringement. He signalled a penalty in Barnsley’s favour, but rather bizarrely allowed Thornensians possession of the ball. In the resulting confusion they took a quick tap and headed for Barnsley’s try line, but were bundled into touch in the corner under the weight of Barnsley’s defence........only for the referee to have other ideas and award a highly controversial try.

Galvanised by the injustice Barnsley seized the initiative from the restart and following several phases of play Aaron Westmoreland gathered the ball and drove towards the line only to be stopped a yard short; the ever opportunistic Josh Smith collected the recycled ball and drove over to score Barnsley’s only try of the game. The remainder of the game passed without troubling the scorers to give a final score of 12 v 8 in favour of the hosts.

Man of the match awards went to Luke Townsend (Forwards) and Sean Powell (Backs).