U11s - St Neots at home - match report 28 Oct 07

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Another hard day at the office for the forward pack, which over a series of three matches broke down the St Neots game and convincingly won the contact area. The backs organised themselves well too with some good passing and running which on another day might have resulted in a set of scorelines more reflective of the actual performance. The squad deserves credit for maintaining discipline throughout the day.

St Neots were a noticeably bigger side than ours and, their forwards in particular, gave the impression of being used to having their own way with throwing around that advantage. It might have come as a surprise to them that our players were totally up for the challenge and threw themselves into the contact area with such gusto that St Neots’ quicker, more skilful players hardly got a look in. The first game exemplified this perfectly where, though we were unable to string together the final pass or make that necessary hole in their defence, it is fair to say that St Neots never looked like they were going to score. This was a hard grinding game by the forwards but they won that aspect which totally disrupted and blunted St Neots' attack. It was good to see the ball passed through the hands of all the backs to really stretch the St Neots’ defence with on occasion some clever interplay and changes of angle.

The second match was a good development opportunity for the rest of the squad and was notable for the return of Guy making his comeback appearance after 4 weeks off after an operation. Suffice to say that he tested the strength of his stitches and of course made almost the dream restart with a try. We held our own well in the first half but sustained pressure from St Neots eventually told. Nevertheless, we fronted up well against an aggressive side and made some good opportunities to come close to scoring on more than the one occasion we did.

For the final match, therefore, there was a strong sense of justice needing to be done but, even then, it didn’t prevent us from making a few changes to the first side. St Neots must have had a shock when they encountered perhaps the shortest second row around only to be enlightened on what our squad already understands, that size really doesn’t matter when there is strength, determination and technique to get to the breakdown and win ball. It was notable also how dominant our scrum was, where the St Neots pack revolved around Joe and though we did win a couple of scrums against the head that way, we also seemed to be penalised too. It wasn’t only the forwards doing their bit and it was refreshing to see Beth too making an appearance and striking down the sides on a couple of effective long runs before last gasp tackles to bring her down. Finally (one for nerds here) the end of the first half saw one of those controversial moments around a "try that never was" from Joe where the ball was adjudged to have not been touched down. There was a similar incident in the World Cup when the decision hinged on what constitutes downward pressure (try finding it in the IRB or RFU rules and you’ll discover how imprecise the rule is!) and though academic really, if given it would have been more reflective of the dominance of our play by then.

Match 6 v. St Neots Drawn 0-0 (HT 0-0)

Ellis, Calum, Peter, Lewis, Brandon (sub Jacob), Harry, Dominic, James D., Ruiri, James W., Ross, Simon

Match 7 v. St Neots Lost 7-28 (HT 7-7)

Ellis, Will, Peter (2nd half full-back), Calum (sub Brandon), Kate, Guy (2nd half lock), James D, Joe, Lewis, Chas (2nd half scrum-half), Beth, Tom

Try – Guy came out of a maul with the ball and headed into the corner for an almost fairy tale comeback. Peter converted.

Match 8 v. St Neots Won 12-0 (HT 12-0)

Joe (sub Ellis), Calum, Peter, Lewis, Ruiri, Harry, Dominic, James D., James W., Ross, Beth, Simon

Tries - Ruiri scored both - first with a good old fashioned run through the centre of the defence from about 10 yards, spinning off several defenders and the second where he tackled a defender in their own try area after St Neots had won their own scrum (a great piece of thinking with a snatch and grab). The second was converted by Peter.

Season so far:
Played 8, Won 2, Drawn 2, Lost 4, points for/against 38/75