U11s - Hemel Hempstead at home - match report 2 Dec 07

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In spite of the most atrocious weather of the winter so far, the team seemed intent on playing summer rugby – passing and running on to the ball at speed and with some fair degree of precision. In the first half at least this was on the back of total domination of the contact area backed up by determined tackling by the whole team.

This was not an easy day for all concerned in many respects. Firstly we had to content with dreadful weather with torrential rain for much of the morning coupled with a driving wind (for the Scots amongst us the weather was dreich). Those on the touchlines have not been so wet and cold in a long time and as a consequence of his pen and hands failing, Stato has concluded that what he now needs for Christmas is a waterproof Dictaphone. The second misfortune was that our opponents had barely brought enough players to make one team, though they did have a couple of quite big kids in there. Given the state of the weather this always made it more likely that a second game was less than certain so team selection (with our admirable turnout of 21) would be all the more tricky.

As it turned out the game was really one of two halves. With a massive lead at the half-way stage this allowed us to make several changes at the restart and within a few minutes a couple more meant that at least everyone who had turned up had got the chance to play and fully savour the delights of the weather. It was not surprising therefore that with all the team changes and the conditions generally that the team perhaps lost its way a little in the second half, allowing Hemel to cross over the line twice (though the second was taken back for an infringement) – the tackling was just that little less precise and intense - but even so there was some good movement of the ball with Will T in particular impressing with a couple of good runs with the ball on his debut.

Though the weather was lousy there were many moments to brighten our morning some of which are listed below. However the play was generally of a very high standard all things considered and what was most impressive of the lot was the way in which the team was moving and passing the ball and at speed. It also should be pointed out that we were blessed with a good ref provided by Hemel – allowing the advantage as often as possible to keep the play moving and giving clear instructions and feedback continuously (even pulling out players from the mauls where they shouldn’t be).

Andy was in raptures after witnessing what he considered to be the ruck of the season (so far) and whilst it was not the defining moment of the match, coming near the end of the first half, it certainly summed up the performance. After taking the ball into contact Hemel threw in their whole pack expecting to win it back. They were not reckoning on a simultaneous effort by our pack to dig in low and push up – technically perfect and totally dominant. And the reward was to secure a penalty, as Hemel went over, leading to the final try.

There were some excellent catches taken from restart, especially in the conditions, notably from James D, Tim and Dom. Hemel had a good drop kicker who got good height and depth though on the last occasion drove the ball in much lower. Once again there cannot be enough praise for the general standard of ball handling – something that was worked on after the previous matches. It didn’t always work but by keeping up the speed and pushing up, Hemel were rarely able to capitalise on any errors. Time after time Hemel tried to make ground by giving the ball to their bigger players but were driven back repeatedly by dogged tackling. Colin’s moment of the day came when one almost broke through only to be brought down by a double team-tackle from two sides simultaneously. You couldn’t tell who – they all started looking alike by that stage - but you could see our two were both aware that one alone wouldn’t bring him down.

Another moment that demonstrated a great level of thinking and control came in the final play of the first half when at last Hemel thought they broken through getting to within 5 yards of the try line. A typical frantic maul then ensued and gradually Hemel pushed forward. However what was not immediately clear is that in the middle of all this Lewis was wrapping himself around the ball and so when the maul was collapsed, there he was lying on the ground propping up the ball, doubtless with a big muddy grin on his face. The looks of disbelief on the opponents faces said it all and although Hemel did manage to get their try in the second half it was clear they were broken by then and so it was not surprising that they decided after the first match, that was enough.

After all this it was encouraging that with an early finish to the formal proceedings, nearly everyone stayed on to play a fun practice match. (The coaches regard this as an important part of reintroducing the children to civilised society, converting them back from the little monsters they become on a match day). By then of course the weather had begun to brighten up (for what was only a short window as players in later matches were to find out).

Match 15 v. Hemel Hempsted Won 28-5 (HT 28-0)
1st half: Ellis, Calum, Peter, Lewis, Jamie, Harry, Dominic, James D, Ruiri, Simon, James W, Tim
2nd half: Ellis, Guy, Joe, Jacob, Brandon, Chas, Tim, Dom (sub Tom), Ru, Beth, Will T, Simon (sub Kate)

Tries*
Simon – Ruiri ran up through the defence to the try line then popped up to Simon who took superbly up high and then simple touch down.
Simon – a brilliant run through the middle, threading through the defence.
Ruiri – Simon returned the earlier favour by running down the side and Rui ran on into the gap that had been created.
Ellis – after all the backs tries, an easy forward’s try running through the defence from over 20 yards out after a penalty gained after that ruck.

It's worth noting that in all three of the tries neither Simon nor Ru would have been so successful had Harry, Dom, and James D not moved the ball so efficiently initially. It's pleasing to note also that though there is undoubtedly an element of competition between the top two try scorers, they are not letting it get in the way of getting the job done in the best way.

*There was some dispute - amongst ourselves! - afterwards about who scored how many tries. Stato's notes recorded the tries as described above but Alan was certain that Simon scored three as well as Ruiri and Ellis one each. Here for the record is Alan's record of events
Try one: ball from scrum moved across the line at speed without the opposition getting a hand on our backs to Ruiri on the run who immediately passed to Simon and put him in From what I can work out every body has forgotten this first try
Try two: again excellent movement across the line to Ru, on this occasion he saw the cover go for Simon so drew them in before popping up the ball for Simon again
Try three was scored by Ruiri, on this occasion instead of passing to Simon as he had on the two previous occasions, he dummied the pass wrong footed the cover and went through the gap.
Try four same as the first two but this time Ru dummied to Simon and raced through gap Ru had created and went on a mud skipping expedition

It really was that wet that no-one else could either see, recall or really cared. Bottom line: we won and convincingly.