A crisp spring Mothers Day morning in rural Hertfordshire brought out one of the best performances of the season from the U14 – maybe they were in a hurry to get back to London to cook their mums a meal or maybe wanting to impress in the last league match of the season – whatever it was this was a lesson in taking opportunities, playing direct and stout structured defense.

Against a well-structured, fierce tackling and mobile Harpenden team, Wasps U14’s took their opportunities through some direct running, the pack working well with the backs, No 8. Jordon, scrum half Theo and stand-off Jamal all combining well to keep the opposition guessing as to where the Wasps attack was coming from. After 5 minutes the first try arrived with a pass out from the centres to Ashraf who rounded the winger to touch down. The second was a break down the middle from Mark who touched down under the posts. Elliot took a similR line down the middle for the next and a sense of de ja vue was complete with a replica 3rd try with Jamal break again taking the ball from the centre spot to touch down under the posts.

It was now the turn of flanker/ inside centre Kai to show a bit of class picking up the ball from another swift Jamal pass he broke a tackle and was faced by the full back on half way a deft grubber kick and the ball was loose Kai picked up on the Harpenden 15 and raced away to score.

The try of the match soon followed after good work by Harry and Alex deep in the Wasps 22 the ball reached Kai who broke a tackle and held up on the Wasps 15 he flicked the ball backwards for Theo to pick up and distribute to Mark who offloaded to Ossama and quickly into Ashraf on the Harpenden 15, no one was going to stop him from there.

To go with all the anomalies of the match the kicker for the day was loosehead (yes I said a loosehead kicker) Ossama, drop kicking 5 of 9 conversions (how inconsiderate of the try scorers to score by the touch flags!!). With territory firmly in the Wasps 22 the kick was used to great effect. On one memorable occasion Wasps won a line out on their own 5 yard line by second row Mark, the ball went to Theo who quickly spun out a pass to Ossama on the deadline ball line, who spiralled a kick to outside their own 22. This lead to the 8th Try, a steal from Jordan created the space for their to get the ball pass to Jamal, who punched a hole and off load to inside centre Kai, who passed onto outside centre Ashraf, rounding 2 players to touch down in the corner.

At this stage Harpenden managed to get their first points on the board with a series of pick and goes and a maul with the entire Harpenden pack following through to push No6 over the line. Wasps final try arrived soon after, a high drop kick from Ossama at the restart had the ball into the hands of the rushing prop Alex, he had one thing on his mind. He was stopped on the 22, so everyone thought, with players all around he kept pushing forwards (referee shouted use it 1, use it 2, then followed a surge by Wasps forwards and out came Alex with the ball with Harpenden players still hanging off him he removed the shackles and ran in to score. The try was converted by Ossama, at which time the referee decided to call time 7 minutes from the end.

Wasps had at least 5 other try scoring opportunities in the match, 3 undone by players hanging o to the ball too long with overlaps available, credit to winger Tom for creating the overlaps.

Overall a good performance against a good team.

Man of the match: Jamal for his excellent reading of the game and distribution from fly half.