Wasps Under 13 A V Hemel Hempstead Under 13 A

Wasps U13A V Hemel Hempstead U13A Home
Sunday 13 January 2013
This was our fourth league fixture and we needed a win to keep us in any sort of contention in division 3 of the Herts Middlesex Junior League. HH had beaten Ruislip in their last outing, and a win would put them top of the division. A hard game was expected, but proved to be a game of two very different halves.
The game kicked off at 11am on a cold and muddy pitch. Wasps put pressure on HH from the start, and although HH looked dangerous, Wasps were the ones applying most the pressure with Daniel scoring a try in the fifth minute. Our fly half, Charlie, went off injured shortly afterwards, but came back on 10 minutes later with his knee bandaged. The first half continued to be tight and the advantage swung both ways, but HH scored 13 minutes later which they converted. They had a strong scrum which got the better of us, and had a few large boys who were inflicting some damage. Wasps however applied more pressure and narrowly missed a couple of opportunities to score, pushing HH hard near their try line. At half time with the score 5:7 to HH, Wasps looked to be the marginally the better side, showing some good phases of passing down the line, not giving away penalties, putting the tackles in and generally tidy play. The mood was good.
The second half opened with a quick try from HH and Wasps then went into freefall. With a couple of exceptions, they forgot how to tackle, scrum, pass and win the ball. It was like watching a team in slow motion against a determined opposition, who probably had less skills than we had, march through our defence as if it was not there. Run through try after try followed, and HH seemed to score at will. Wasps did have one brilliant phase towards the end when Charlie (No 10) kicked the ball near the HH’s line, which rebounded of their player, back into Charlie’s hands, at which time half the Wasps team seemed to swoop in to support, only for the try to be held up.
It was a very disappointing result, very similar to our last game against Letchworth, when we dominated the first half, but were walked all over in the second. Tackling is an issue that needs to be addressed. Also, the mindset of the team in the second half of matches. It was however a clean game, and a well deserved win for Hemel Hempstead, who now go to top of division 3, with Wasps in 6th place just ahead of last placed Bank of England.
Final score: 5:45 to Hemel Hempstead