Billingham 7-7 Darlington MP

Despite the recent freezing weather and probably much to everyone’s surprise, DMP U7’s travelled across to Hartlepool to play what turned out to be some excellent matches against Hartlepool RFC and Billingham RFC on Sunday morning.

The Mowden Park U7’s were strengthened by a couple of the U8’s, and the six players who turned out were, Kyle, Oliver, Iain, Sophie, Jamie and Davey.

The first game on a blustery and somewhat arctic feeling pitch was against Hartlepool U7’s and it proved to be an entertaining spectacle that helped to just about keep frostbite away from the players and supporter’s toes.

Hartlepool kicked off and opened the scoring, only to be pegged back straight away with a try from Davey who burst through from his own half. The rolling substitutions kept the players fresh and kept everyone on their toes, and the scoring ebbed and flowed with tries being scored by Kyle, a couple for Jamie and also one from Sophie.

Although Mowden Park edged ahead they were ultimately pegged back in the final play but still earned a credible 8-8 draw.

Next up were Billingham’s U7’s and another god game was ahead. By this stage there were clearly some cold fingers on the pitch and despite a few of the players sporting gloves or even tucking their hands away up their sleeves for warmth the handling remained good.

Both teams played some enterprising rugby in the conditions and the tries were coming in from all round the pitch by this stage. Oliver and Iain kept Mowden in it with some key tagging, with Davey and Jamie both scoring on the counter attack. Eventually referee Tony called the game to a halt with the scores at 7-7.

Finally, Mowden’s U7’s stepped in to play a practice match against Billingham’s U8’s who had travelled across but had no opposition to play against. Despite the clear difference in size and speed, Mowden Park’s U7’s saved their best performance until last.

A very competitive game followed with Mowden sticking to their task and managing to thwart Billingham with some tremendous last ditch tagging. The bigger team had started by having most of the ball but they found it tough to break down Mowden’s determined defence. A couple of excellent break away tries kept Mowden well in touch, very much ahead of expectation.

A brilliant team effort kept the game extremely close, and whilst not entirely sure of the score in this unexpected practice match, I wouldn’t be surprised if this had also ended in a tie. Most of the spectators had left by this stage to try and defrost and great credit must go to the youngsters for throwing themselves in to all the games with great energy, and to the coaches for persevering with getting a game on.

For those interested, keep watching the club website, where there will hopefully be some brief highlights of the games for you to enjoy in the videos section.