Yatwell under-16s and Hornets produced a wonderful game as both sides played some really great and exciting rugby in the opening fixture of the season as the boys from the Nest came away 38-24 winners recently.

Hornets opened the scoring when a lost ruck, where Yatwell were passive over the ball, enabled the play for hosts to score their first try and this was followed by two more before Yatwell were able to strike back.

A penalty in their own 22m area was well chased deep into the Hornets half and following a number of well contested breakdowns, Yatwell had another penalty. 

This time they opted for the scrum and when scrum-half Jack Carter sniped down the blindside he manged to get the off-load away for winger Billy Taylor to pick up off his toes and dive over for the try but Hornets went into half-time 19-5 ahead.

Into the second half and it was Yatwell who struck first with a try that came from some great awareness and communication. A penalty on their 10m line was kicked cross field and when Hornets failed to gather newcomer Matt Lane pounced on the ball and ran the half length of the pitch to score under the posts.

This was almost followed by immediately by another Yatwell score as they secured a penalty at the breakdown from the re-start.  A quickly taken tap by centre Charlie Hayett saw him burst through the defence and off-load out of a tackle to supporting prop Phil Clarke.

Unfortunately, when he was stopped Hornets returned the play deep into Yatwell territory and the opportunity was lost.  Yatwell’s next score came from a well worked move off the back of a scrum on the Hornets 10m line.  Good hands and a slick run-round saw them move the ball wide and when it came out of a ruck scrum-half Sam Bown popped it up to winger Mo Sayce who tore back across the field and round the defenders to score. 

Now firmly back in contention at 19-17, it was unfortunate that Hornets then scored three quick tries as Yatwell seemed to lose concentration and focus.

The first of these was pretty much off of the re-start when a loose ball was recovered by the hosts and Yatwell’s defence, which had been so solid throughout seemed to stand still and allow Hornets to cut a line straight through them to score.

The second was off the back of some poor tackling as Yatwell gave their centre far too much time and space to run well over half the length of the pitch to score out wide.

The last was off of a well-placed kick ahead with a bounce that was extraordinarily cruel as it pinged straight back into the arms of a Hornets runner who rounded the wrong-footed Yatwell defenders to score.

This took the game into the final two minutes and despite those scores Yatwell went straight back up the field looking to compete to the very end. A good couple of rucks provided a quick ball and then a super crossfield kick from fly-half Jimmy Jackson-Patel to Sayce gather out wide and go over for the final score and play of the match.