BERFC U16s vs Datchworth

Its fair to say I was a little apprehensive about todays game . Given last season Datchworth beat our A team comprehensively and given Barnet were short 7 of their stronger players today to either DPP or injury we could have been easily overwhelmed .

A very green Barnet team started strong , with some excellent tackling in particular by Oli Collard . A poor clearance by Barnet however let Datchworth score after 5 minutes . Barnet regrouped and whilst being slightly weaker in the rucks held their own , with any breakaway runs from Datchworth being either brought down or cleared by Tom Watt who , lets face it , was superb stepping in at 10 and should be very proud for the supporting role he played .

The next 20 minutes were intense with some great rucking from Robert who really stepped up his game in his first appearance as hooker . Eventually some great driving runs from George Sturley , supported by Yunus led to a superb try by Parsa Mohajer who had a superb game at centre today with some fantastic handoffs , and as I promised him intimidated the Datchworth boys with his physicality .

Barnet looked well organised and despite being down at half time continued with the same energy . With the addition of Harry , Reece and Callum Barnet looked to be running away with it and after 3 more excellent tries by Ikechi , Ed and Parsa I thought the Barnet boys had it in the bag . Indeed Datchworth's heads went down . However with Barnet's energy spent and a few key players off with minor injuries Datchworth seemed to find another gear and at 60 mins ran one superb try down the line swiftly followed by a second in the corner .

By the time Barnet had regained their composure the final whistle was blown, and if there is a lesson to be learned from today its that its not over till its over .

Post game , despite losing to Datchworth , the players and coaches alike were upbeat and we should take the positives from the game in respect for all the boys who gave it their all and for the more experienced players who gave their experience to support those lads who have supported them from the sidelines for the past 2 weeks . George Sturley who stepped in as captain and at number 8 echoed this in his post game analysis emphasising how well everyone on the pitch played .

Player of the day goes to Robert Olariu for pure determination to the point he could barely stand ! Other special mentions to Ed , Oli , Parsa and Tom .