Whitby Under 16's Rugby          Sunday 20th september

Acklam 14 Whitby 22

On a sunny sunday Whitby travelled to Acklam for what turned out to be the usual close and hard fought match. Acklam attacked from the kick off and kept Whitby pegged back in their own 22 with a combination of strong forward work and some good running moves by their backs The Whitby forwards in particular were finding the going very hard with the Acklam front 5 dominating. Winning any useful ball was proving difficult and unfortunately when the ball was in Whitby's possession a series of handling errors meant the chances were misssed.15 minutes into the game Acklam scored a good try and for nearly all the remaining half Whitby were put under pressure by the Acklam chiefly by some excellent kicking from the Acklam fly half ,however, Whitby defended resolutely and didnt let Acklam score again in the first half although it was only in the closing minutes of the half that Whitby managed to get into the Acklam 22 but they were soon halted by the Acklam defence. The score at half time remained Acklam 7  Whitby 0

Whitby started the second half much more positively applying pressure and were soon rewarded Mitch Eglon scoring a push over try 5 minutes into the half The try encouraged the Whitby team and they started to win much more ball and were able to put together a few phases passing the ball out to the wings, unfortunately some sloppy decision making gave Acklam an interception try deservedly restoring their advantage.This only inspired the Whitby fighting spirit and a great move was started by Connor Clennan taking a quick throw in in his own 22 Joe Lenton received the ball and ran 60m down the pitch when he was tackled he off loaded to Jack Reeves to score and finish off a brillant move, a conversion by Sam Webster brought Whitby back to within 2 points. Whitby were now getting on top and when Acklam had a player sin binned they took full advantage, the ball passed through 4 or 5 pairs of Whitby hands before Taffy Stephens scored a fine try in the corner. In the last couple of minutes Matt Dudman kicked the ball 50m down field ran and collected the ball scoring an individual try in the corner.Although they didnt play well Whitby acheived the win team spirit and fitness saving the day
Man of the Match Matt Dudman   leading by example
Final Score  Acklam 14   Whitby 22
Try Scorers  Mitch Eglon
Jack Reeves
Taffy Stephens
Matt Dudman 
Conversion   Sam Webster