U16s - Barnsley Vs Baildon

BARNSLEY RUFC U16 MATCH REPORT

SHAW LANE, SUNDAY 18TH NOVEMBER 2007, 11AM KICK OFF.
OPPONENTS – BAILDON RUFC.
REFEREE – BRYN GREY – RFU SOCIETY
SCORE –BARNSLEY- 58 BAILDON - 0

BAILDON FAIL IN A HAIL OF BARNSLEY FIRE!

Score lines can sometimes not tell the whole story and to save this particular report from attaining “War and Peace” proportions, I’m going to have to gloss over a lot of excellent play.

Firstly, this is the boys’ record score, and record win. I must confess that I may have inadvertently credited Jack Churchill with one more conversion than he actually got, but I don’t really care. It changes nothing.

Previous best – Highest Score 45 –5 against Mellish April 2006
Biggest win 44 – 0 against Selby December 2006
(The George Foreman grill pan challenge match – remember Gary?)

The lads started like demons scoring straight from the kick off, Miles BROOKS finishing off an irresistible move.
Unfortunately Matthew TILLEY got clattered by a high tackle, fell awkwardly and hurt his back. It was very worrying at the time, but thankfully he is not as badly injured as first feared and will hopefully be back playing soon. The game was unavoidably delayed by a cold, miserable, 26minutes.

When the game restarted it descended into a bit of a stalemate. The lads threatened but knocked on, put in a poor final pass, or infringed in the set piece and the loose.

It was a very stop start affair, but it was both sets of players at fault, not new ref. Bryn Grey who did his best to keep the game flowing.

Baildon were proving to be a tough, plucky outfit, and deserved to be in the game. Their pack had a definite edge in the scrum, which was quite alarming at the time.
EIGHTEEN, yes 18 minutes of deadlock were broken by 2 tries in succession by Jack CHURCHILL and Jim HAIGH respectively. (cons missed) making the score at half time 15 - 0.
Both tries involved powerful, direct running, precise passing, and support play – AT LAST!

In the second half, an ominous changed was made to the front row ( Not that Conor Egan hadn’t given his usual combative display),Top Gear has “The Stig”, we have a lad who some say….., eats razor wire for breakfast, spits bullets, and wins all the regulars at arm-wrestling in his mum and dad’s pub. All I know is that he’s called “GRANT”.

The first Baildon scrum was destroyed utterly (they had been pushing us about),and the lads piled the pressure on.
Grant POWELL (I wish he was in this mood every week) received the ball roughly on the halfway line, and sprinted to the Baildon line, destroying everything in his path.

This was the pivotal moment of the game.

A venerated, senior club official was reputedly heard to remark, “xxxxxxx-xxxx , he’s a prop!” Props ain’t what they used to be.

Suddenly the lads had the upper hand in every facet of the game, and where earlier they had stuttered and struggled like the England football team, they became as determined and focussed as the England rugby team.
Superior fitness, driving/mauling, support play, passing, vision, ruthless finishing, and awesome defence, opened the floodgates.

I felt sorry for the Baildon lads who could not have expected the game to have finished in this way after being fiercely competitive for much of it. It takes two teams to make a good game, and this was such a game, it was not a massacre.
I cannot remember our lads ever scoring better tries. They needed scoring, they were not gifts.
Scores came from, Marlon WRAGG, another from BROOKS, two from CHURCHILL (as well as the cons), and two from Brad WOOD.

A completely stunning second half performance. 58 - 0

Barnsley MOTM chosen by the ref – JACK CHURCHILL – Jack had the game that I had long hoped that he would do – The stats speak for themselves –more please.

Mention in dispatches goes to Jim Haigh who led the team extremely well, and scored a fine try. Marlon Wragg, awesome power, and scored another fine try. Miles Brooks – all round excellence, Brad Wood – potentially one of the most devastating runners around, again 2 fine tries. Everyone else had good games ,there wasn't’ anyone who did not stand up to the mark. I've said enough about GRANT already.

The return of Quotation Corner : Skip Lumb to Mark Smith, “ Hey up Smithy, you coach first team as well don’t you ? ( a rhetorical question –look it up lads.)
Mark , “ Yessss?” (he suspected a punch line)
SKIP ,” So how come these lads can run fast, straight, pass the ball and score tries, and the first team can’t?”

Thanks to Mark, and Andy Walshaw ,and Bryn Grey.

TIME LINE:

11.03AM – KICK OFF (BAILDON)

11.05 – TRY (MILES) + CON. MISSED 5 – 0

MATT TILLEY INJURY – A LONG BREAK WHILST HE WAS TAKEN TO A&E BY AMBULANCE.

11.31 – GAME RESTARTED BY BAILDON

11.49– TRY(JACK) ,CON MISSED 10-0

11.55 – TRY(JIM),CON MISSED 15 –0

11.56 – HALF TIME

11.59 – RESTART (2ND HALF – BARNSLEY)

12.10 – TRY(GRANT), CON MISSED – 20-0

12.12 – TRY (MARLON), CON MISSED – 25 – 0

12.18 – TRY (MILES) + CON (JACK) – 32- 0

12.22 – TRY (JACK) + CON (JACK) – 39 – 0

12.23 – TRY(BRAD) + CON (JACK) 46 – 0

12.27 – TRY (JACK), MISSED CON – 51 – 0

12.31 – TRY (BRAD) + CON (JACK) – 58 –0

12.34 – FULL TIME.