Hungerford RFC

Dawn broke on a glorious sun-soaked February morning at the Triangle Field. Hungerford Hurricanes welcomed Reading RFC for their U13s Berkshire Youth Cup match. The Hurricanes’ first ever home cup game. 

With conditions promising a great match, neither team disappointed. Under the watchful eye of referee Matt Galbraith, Reading built up a strong start whilst Hurricanes took a fair while to ease into the match. Reading capitalised on some handling errors and proved strong in resultant scrums and built a very quick lead with four tries in the first 20 minutes 0-20. Hurricanes refused to concede another and when tighthead Lucian Allard got the ball in midfield he barrelled through the opposition gaining 20 metres. This provided the impetus for Hurricanes to build the intensity and four phases later, the ball found its way to stand-in wing Greyson Evans to battle his way over the try line 5-20. Half-time soon followed. 

Hurricanes started the second half with ferocious intensity and quickly struck through centre Max Bartholomew on the wing – his pace, aggression and tenacity beating four Reading defenders. Max added another soon after for 15-20. With this renewed belief, Hurricanes levelled the match 20-20 for the try bonus point, after some quick work out the back of the scrum from Zachary Robins to set captain Oscar McBride up to blow through defenders to dot down. With the match level, it was all to play for. Reading came back strong in the final quarter and scored in the left corner after some defensive errors from Hurricanes. With four minutes to play, Reading crossed again 20-30. However Hurricanes were not done and Max breached the white line for his hat-trick with the final play of the game to see the final score 25-30.

Hurricanes secured the two bonus points, but ultimately succumbed to a very well organised Reading team who profited from the hosts’ early errors.

Reading Head Coach Gavin Smith paid tribute to Hurricanes saying “it was the best game I’d seen my side play against one of the best opponents, played in the very spirit of the game”. Hurricanes Head Coach Matt Allard commented that “Reading should be very proud of their performance – a great team effort. The coaching team could not be more proud of the way the Hurricanes got themselves back into the game – every player after a slow start put in huge effort to claw us back to level. Whilst we take a lot of learnings away, the overall feeling is one of pride in the boys”. He added, “a special thanks to a superb refereeing display [from Matt Galbraith] – the boys commented it was fairly reffed, a great learning experience and he allowed play to flow really nicely”.

In the clubhouse afterwards, the boys voted for their players of the match with Reading’s captain Leon taking the award from Hurricanes and our Greyson Evans earning the plaudits from Reading’s boys. Coaches picked out Reading’s Noah for strong running lines, and relentless effort, whilst Reading acknowledged Max’s three tries and unstoppable runs.

A great morning’s rugby on a great morning all round.