HRC Colts 3 hosted CL Dukes/BRC Colts 2 last weekend on the new pitch at Voorburgse Rugby Club. Bad weather made other pitches unavailable, so a thank you to Voorburg for hosting this match.
It’s always an ominous sign when the opposing team are ready to go and looking hungry on their marks when you’re still in your pre-match huddle and it was somewhat of a sign of things to come.
Wet and windy conditions meant it was always going to be a challenge to keep handling errors to a minimum and both teams suffered from this in the opening phase of the game which resulted in a fair amount of scrums. HRC kept their shape and composure pretty well but the Dukes opened the scoring with a try and conversion relatively early on. HRC came back quickly with a cheeky kicked and chased down try but that was to be our only score of the match.
The Dukes increasingly asserted their dominance though HRC had a magnificent, sustained period of defence on their own line towards to the end of the first half. Really gritty stuff that was a testament to their team spirit.
The second half saw the Dukes take control. They were simply sharper, faster and stronger overall and the worsening conditions just compounded the handling difficulties of the first half. HRC never really looked like breaking through the Dukes defences carrying the ball so resorted to a bit of ‘kick and pray’. That paid off a bit in terms of metres gained but the boys sadly weren’t able to create any scoring opportunities.
All said, fair play to HRC for staying in a tough game and not giving up. Final score 5-69.
