Darlington RFC

You should have heard the “old timers” amongst us trying to recall the muddiest pitches we ever played on!
It’s Larne – whatever Andy says!

Our U12 managed to put in an impressive performance and end up comfortable winners in the rain, snow and mud!
From a coaches point of view it is pleasing to see young players using the skills we have worked on in training in actual games. In very difficult conditions our boys managed to pass, support and use good technique at the breakdowns.

A great effort from our forwards managed to overpower a spirited Guisborough side and our backs proved to be more than capable of exploiting this.

Our Front Row performed well throughout the game. Ross was very active at the breakdowns and made some excellent charges in mid-field. On Wednesday we will be looking at how we can get even more out of Ross’ powerful running.

Robert, our “Mr. Versatile” had an excellent game at Hooker after playing well at Fullback last week. An excellent Garryowen surprised Guisborough and came close to creating a score! A kicking Hooker – that’s Total Rugby!

At Loose Head Brandon had one of his best performances ever. A good technical game and some excellent passing and off-loading made Brandon our Man Of The Match. Well done Brandon, you deserved it!

We had two of our newer players in the second row. Josh was playing his first full game for us and George was making his debut. Both performed like veterans and fitted into the team brilliantly. Excellent work in the scrum meant we dominated in that area. Both defended bravely and were keen to do their bit at the breakdown. Well done boys. George also provided a great moment in the game: when he put in a great diving tackle, textbook really, only to have a very muddy Guisborough player pop out of his arms like a bar of soap!

Daniel had yet another good game at 8 and scored a well deserved try after some excellent work from Alfie gave him a bit of space. Daniel is always a menace at the breakdown and a ferocious defender and is really starting to set up chances for team mates.

Mud and cold hands make life very difficult for Half backs! Lewis and Callum made lots of good decisions, kept their team moving and made very few mistakes despite a very determined effort from Guisborough to disrupt them. Callum took some heavy knocks and Lewis ended the first half with two bloodshot eyes after some careless fingers got to him at the bottom of a ruck. Well done to our “Axis Of Evil” for their courage and determination to play good rugby!

Alfie, once again, had an impressive game and scored two tries. On top of his “Whirlwind” running and some excellent passing Alfie had another 100% kicking success.

Poor old Ben would, on a dry day, have scored two tries but after making excellent support runs was unable to hold on to the bar of soap when the try line was open. It was just bad luck and the conditions – we all know that Ben has excellent catching skills.

Our Back Three are quietly and quickly becoming a central part of our team plans. Great defending from Benedict and Anthony and some excellent covering work from Nozza showed how important this unit is. It was impressive that, on a day when the ball was not going to get wide very often, they stuck to our game plan and were always ready to do the hard work. Also impressive was the way that after a mix up at the back gifted Guisborough their only try our Back Three put the error behind them and went on to have a very good game. Well done boys. I have to say that Benedict is a far better winger than that Dominic boy (long story).

A mention for Adam also. Adam is still recovering from a jet ski accident and we had decided to bring him on for the last five minutes or so. Just as Adam was about to join the game the referee decided to end things early. Bad luck Adam.

With five or ten minutes to go Darlington were dominant in all areas and after a sustained period of pressure in which Guisborough conceded numerous penalties some of the Guisborough players were finding it difficult to maintain composure and discipline. After one flair up of temper and then some “back chat” the referee decided that two of their players should leave the field and that the game should end.

It is a pity that the game ended this way but these things do happen. At least we could all get clean and WARM a little bit sooner!

Bad luck to Ryan who began to feel ill in the warm up and was unable to play.

Overall a good solid team performance. As our team work improves and players begin to play for their team-mates the talent we always knew was in our squad is starting to show and with the huge potential shown by our recent “signings” things are looking good for our group.
Let’s put in the effort to ensure a good end to this season and a fantastic start to our time as Juniors next season!

As always: I would like to say a big thank you to our “Grown Ups” for their support and encouragement on what was an awful day weather wise!

Thank you to our Match Referee.

Thank you to Guisborough U12s for providing stiff opposition and their sportsmanship after the game. A big thank you goes to the Guisborough Staff and Officials who provided us with excellent hospitality – the hot dogs and hot chocolate went down well and the jacket potatoes for the coaches were lovely (I have to say apparently here though because Jo and Andy ate mine!).

Man Of The Match was Brandon and Robert achieved his first Noggin Of The Week award after a forgotten gum shield and a strange underpants situation brought him to the judges attention!

Well Done All!