Datchworth u16's v Barnet u16's

Great Come Back !

The under 16’s showed incredible spirit in overcoming Barnet on Sunday in a fine game played in good spirit between the two sides.

Datchworth started the game well against their League 2 visitors and took the lead when Ethan French taking a pass on the blind side from the impressive John Coultas rounded the first defender before stepping inside the covering defenders to then race clear under the posts and James Hunter added the conversion.

However Barnet then came back with a try to make 7 -5, Datchworth defended well and created a couple of chances only for some forced passes turning over possession. Barnet then pushed on in the second half continually winning the contest at the breakdown and with a try followed by another two in quick succession .....Datchworth looked beaten at 7 - 24.

However directly from the base of a scrum on the Datchworth 22 ,Dominic Negri carried the ball into open field and with a well timed pass put Theo Wise into some space and with 70 meters to go he raced clear then rounded the last defender to score under the posts. This was the spark to a fine finish with Barnet barely seeing the ball for the last 10 minutes and further tries from Dean Carmichael, then Owen MacGillivray with a dummy and sidestep dotting down for the levelling try before George Little slotted the conversion to take the lead 26 -24.

Datchworth then closed out the game for a fine win.

Connor Harris in one of his best performances picked up the Champagne Moment for securing a loose ball with no regard for his head close to the Barnet try line to maintain the pressure towards the end of the game .

The Man of the Match was jointly awarded to the dynamic front row duo of Aaron Livingstone and Dean Carmichael for an all round fine performance throughout the entire 70 minutes.

James Wilson making his debut for Datchworth looked impressive on the wing with both important tackles and making good ground with ball in hand.

This week Datchworth travel across the border to Ongar RFC

Next week the u16’s travel to Ongar.