Sunday 13^th November 2011

Herts and Middlesex Division 6

Hackney Bulls 10 Hammers 19

The under 13’s turned up at Hackney RFC with only 12 players and had to borrow 3 players from the opposition to make a full side, but this didn’t stop them from putting on a great display of rugby on a hot November day, in London E5.

Hammers kick off into the sun and Hackney tried to run through the resolute Hammers defence that held firm in the opening minutes with Joe Proctor, Milo Storey and Louis Dupuy D’Angeac putting in good tackles. After ten minutes from broken play the ball was won from a ruck by Francois Chabrelie and Alexandre Coyard picked the loose ball to sprint unopposed to score a try under the posts. Unfortunately the conversion was missed so the score remained 5-0. This seem to spur on the Hackney players who with good handling and forceful running camped in the Hammers try line for a number of minutes and were only kept out by text book tackling by Gustave Vilsboe at full back, Oliver Hayward-Cole on the wing and Theo Tsatsaris in the centre. But eventually the Hackney pressure told and they created an overlap on the wing that allowed their speedy centre to score in the left hand corner. With the conversion missed this made the score 5 -5, with a couple of minutes left in the first half. Hackney now started to play very well linking up with their players but once again the Hammers forwards kept them at bay with strong defensive tackling by Raphael Fackler, Gabriel Corrandi and Aidan Gazidis. Just as it appeared that the Hammers had weather the storm the Hackney forwards manufactured space for their dangerous centre, who scored in the right hand corner. The conversion was missed so making the score 10-5 to Hackney at half time.

In the second half the Hammers dominated the game with good driving runs by Joe Proctor, Louis Dupuy D’Angeac and Raphael Fackler providing good ball for Marc Plantenga at fly half to supply our fast back line to attack the Hackney defence. Theo Tsatsaris went on a great run from inside his own half and was very unlucky not to score as he was brought down near the try line by a good last ditched tackle by the Hackney full back.

With the Hammers playing some good rugby the Hackney team started to give away numerous infringements and from one of these a quickly taken tap penalty the ball found its way to Raphael Fackler who brushed off several Hackney tacklers to score a fantastic individual try to the left of the posts, which was converted by Marc Plantenga, making the score 10-12 to the Hammers. Once again Hackney rallied and put the Hammers under tremendous pressure for several minutes, but they could not score due to the Hammers defensive wall holding back all of their attacks. From a scrum the Hammers forwards won from a Hackney put in and the ball was swept down the ball were it reached Alexandre Coyard who side stepped his way pass defenders to score under the posts. Marc Plantenga was once again successful with the conversion, so making the final score 10-19 to the mighty Hammers under 13’s side.

This was an excellent display by all the Hammers players who came to Hackney and showed what they can do once they play as a team and put into practise what they learn at training sessions.