Nightmare with the Hookers?
The weekends Halloween fixture at the British School was changed at the last minute (I can’t guess why?), which meant an early… 9:00am kick-off at The Hookers. We’ll forgive the Dutch planners as they wouldn’t have known the school was closed! With many players still on holiday, a full 15 “man” squad recorded wins against The Hookers and HRC 4.
The Mini’s first game against The Hookers started promptly and so did the tries. Lachlan breaking through the Hookers defence to run in a try from 40 meters out, even shaking off their full back and a winger on the way. Joaquin looked to have score but for a forward pass during an attack down the right wing. With the “hookers” contesting the scrums, the ball was turned over for the Minis to score in the opposite corner after a bit of phase play.
Lachlan breaks through again!
4-0 at half time, and the momentum carried on in the second half. The Minis weren’t committing to the breakdowns but to be fair, they really didn’t have to against the Hookers as good pressure from William, Andrea and Alexander continuously stopping them getting over the gain line. Alexander side-stepped his way through the Hookers defence to score and then almost setting up Nicolas for another but the best attacking move was orchestrated by Daniel, fixing the defenders long enough to suck them in, before off-loading to William to score. Final score 9-0.
Great offload almost puts Nicolas in!
Balancing the ball… a great pickup from William!
After playing for nearly half an hour, The Minis were immediately up against HRC 4 for their final game. The first half was a scrappy affair played mostly in the middle of the field as the Minis lost their structure. The Minis had a number of wasted opportunities and half chances but to no avail. An excellent drive from HRC’s fast (and some say pesky) scrum half saw the Minis concede to go into the beak 0-1 down.
Another attack has the HRC defenders running backward
A lecture from Coach Andy about the team structure during half time had immediate effect as they attacked with purpose but they still needed to defend well, Jamal, Andrea and William holding the line as HRC tried to carry on their first half momentum, and a covering tackle by Jamie stopped it becoming 0-2. In the next attack, the Minis were back on par, Lachlan scoring from close range. HRC were now on the back foot from waves of attacks from the Minis, who were now playing a quicker ball and attacking at pace. William added another before a diving try by Joaquin in the corner to give the Minis some breathing space. William added the coup de grace with a trade mark intercept for a 4-1 win. A great 2nd half performance and turnaround by the boys!
Coaches; Andy, Manuel, Daran
Man of the Match: Andrea
Captain: Lachlan
Squad; Alexander C, Andrea, Arthur, Daniel (H), Daniel (DJ), Henry, Jamal, Jamie, Joaquin, Lachlan, Nicolas, William
Subs: Calum, Jules, Leyla