Travels with Dinno - At home versus Sheffield

Hello again as we take our latest steps on the mighty journey around Britain with Dinnington Rugby Club. Last weekend the club sent half the team off to Old Brodleians in Hipperholme (near Halifax for the geographically challenged). This was the first XV. They beat their opponents in snowy conditions at least 32-5. I don't have any details of scorers etc.

Meanwhile, back in sunny Dinno, the development team took on local rivals Sheffield. Regular readers will recall, and if you can't the details are in this blog and you clearly haven't been paying attention, that the development team have played Sheffield twice this season and had a draw and a win under their belts. After an early shock try from Sheffield the development forwards kicked into overdrive.

The development pack have always been strong but sometimes can be off the pace. Not last Sunday. They were winning scrums and rucks and were driving and controlling the game. Sheffield had an injured player who couldn't scrum but got stuck in at everything else. Within minutes Travis built on excellent work by Josh and Ronan and just dived across the line to score the first try.

Dinno scored again before half time thanks to Will (apologies if it wasn't and I'm sure somebody will let me know if that's wrong). After half time the team kicked on. The team broke forward and the ball came out to Richard (aka Ches) and he started to run laterally. The air was blue around head coach Dave but it all worked out in the end and he scored the try.

I used to coach rugby for a couple of seasons (u10-u12) and so had to be a little bit restrained when watching the boy play and do well. A ruck formed in the middle of the pack and then all of a sudden Tom appeared from the back of the pack about 20-30m out. He broke one tackle and pushed off another and then broke clear and headed for the line. He was almost caught but given the conditions he chose to dive in and score just by the posts. This was converted. The score was 17 - 5. Sheffield got another back.

Then James S got the ball on the wing. The thing he needs to do is back himself. Once he believes he can do it he will be fine. He burst down the wing and fended off a couple of tackles and then burst into the clear. He then crossed the line and ran round under the posts. His dad was swearing at this and the swearing got worse when James missed his conversion. Final score 27 - 10.

The team as a whole performed excellently. There is a truism in rugby that forwards win you games and backs decide by how many. On this occasion the forwards did both. Afterwards in the bar coach Kev made it clear that the team as a whole was a credit to the Dinnington badge and that they should not feel inferior to anybody.

As ever the food was excellent.

Next week there may be a game against Sandal. So see you soon.