U11s at St Neots - match report 6 January 2008

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After the Christmas and New Year break we were straight back into a match notching a highly commendable brace of victories. This improved on the results against the same opposition earlier in the season giving further indication of the steady improvement the squad is making (and vindication of the extra training session fitted in on the eve of Christmas Eve).

In the first match there was a strong sense of control right from the whistle. The team had responded well to the format of shorter matches (to reproduce competition matches) with greater intensity and urgency. The scrums were tighter following the training sessions on these aspects before Christmas and we can now move on to work on the lineout in a similar fashion (though mustn’t lose sight of how important a weapon the ruck and maul can be in our armoury). A noteworthy moment of the match came with St Neots’ compensation try in the final play which had just a hint of controversy when Harry was felled by what appeared from one side of the pitch to be a clear punch. However from the other, closer, side to the incident it seemed more like a clumsy swipe whilst emerging from a ruck, and to be fair the St Neots player involved did apologise afterwards. The play wasn't stopped and the distraction to Harry's team mates led to the vital territory being lost.

The second match was unarguably the pick of the day in terms of spectator excitement as it went first one way and then the other as St Neots took the lead twice only to be pegged back. The final, winning try came in pretty much the last play of the game and the St Neots coach's reaction said it all as clearly he thought they had this one in the bag. Again, our scrum functioned well against a larger pack but the closeness of the match emphasised the need for forwards to get to the gameline quickly and for the backs to get their tackles in whilst keeping their shape.

There was further experimentation with positions in the final match and although it resulted in the home side having something to cheer about at last, it was no runaway result. A few missed tackles in the backs was the difference in the end: St Neots deserved the win but they were not really as dominant as the result might suggest. Perhaps the notable feature of the third match was that, by common consensus, the excellent performance of Chas at scum-half who was just having one of those days, talking to his forwards and barking at the backs. Other notable performances (aside from our valiant try scorers credited below) were another reliable set of games from Tim at full back and an eye catching forward drive through the middle of the pitch from Brandon. Beth was another who had some fine moments in attack in both second and third matches and was more tenacious in her tackling in her second match.

Match 20 v. St Neots Won 14-7 (HT 7-0)

Joe, Calum, Peter, Lewis, Guy (Jamie), Harry, Dom, James D, Ruiri, James W, Simon, Tim

Tries
Simon – a really nicely worked try by the backs who moved the ball sharply across the line to end up with Simon to go comfortably for the corner with about a couple of yards width to spare. Conversion: Peter
Simon - not pretty but effective as the ball was driven over the line within the maul and when it was finally collapsed Simon was there at the bottom. Conversion: Peter

Mach 21 v. St Neots Won 17-14 (HT 12-7)

Brandon, Will N, Joe, Jamie, Guy, Dom, Beth, Rui, Ross, Simon, Kate, Tim

Tries
Ruiri - we haven't seen one of these tries for a while now, with a hole being punched through the St Neots defence after a penalty at 7 yards out.
Simon – if the first try of the day was the pick of the bunch then this was a choice moment too as Ruiri created an effective hole for Simon on the left had side of the wing, drawing in a second St Neots defender by fading slightly to his right and then passing the ball out at the last moment. After that it was fairly straightforward charge down the line. Conversion: Peter (Not normally worth much comment but this was a little controversial as Peter was not officially on the pitch at the time! It was done inadvertently after Alex - who was referee at the time - commented where Peter was to take the kick: the team took this rather too literally but at least Alex was alert enough to prevent a cheeky repeat later on!)
Simon - in reality a try out of nothing as Simon found the ball with no one around him to support and nowhere else to go other than down the line.

Match 22 v. St Neots Lost 0-21 (HT 0-7)
Peter, Calum, Brandon (Joe), Lewis, Jamie, Chas, Beth, James D, Ross, James W (Kate), Tom , Harry

Season so far: Played 22; Won 10; Drawn 3; Lost 9. Tries for 33; against 29

It is perhaps worth pointing out at this almost midway point through the season in terms of matches to be played how well the squad’s performance this season compares with previous ones. At the same point in the U10s season last year for instance the stats were P 25; W 13; D 3; L 9. What is more clear is that tries are harder to come by now – although the overall ratio of tries scored to conceded is just about the same in both years (just over one scored to every conceded) at this point the squad last year had scored 57 tries and conceded 44. This is an indication of how much tougher the games are becoming to win.