Old Albanian's Away

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Newly named “Saxons” and “Vikings” enjoy mixed fortunes.

Saxons Squad.
Daniel, Ollie P, Maitiu, George, Tom, Frazer, Oli Red, Sam C, Ashley,
Game 1 v OAs A 3-0
Game 2 v OAs A 5-0
A heavy frost made us question if the matches would take place, but the bright St Alban’s sunshine was burning this away. It took a while to locate the U10s area, on the vast fields of the OAs posh club. The Saxons (S’s) played 2 games against the OA’s A team and sadly lost them both. The OA’s were full of confident backs, who could pass accurately at speed and strong forwards, who could go half the length of the pitch and not be stopped. Ashley did tackle like a demon to stop them at times and Ollie P put his weight to good use. Maitiu also showed up well, with Daniel lending excellent support. The backs struggled to make many clean breaks, being pressurised by scrappy ball and OA defence. Oli Red and Tom both attempted intercepts but could not take the ball. One OA lineout in Game 1 took us by surprise, as they threw long to a back, a move not seen at this level before. ("One issue I can clear up is that OA’s try where they threw it long at the line out should not have been allowed" - Colin a week later)This made it 2-0 at HT. We held them out for long periods in the 2nd half, but Ashley was robbed of the ball after one of his many fine runs and the OAs took advantage. 3-0. In Game 2, we were guilty of very poor tackling, allowing a player to avoid 6 tackles to score. We did put together some better moves to take play up-field, with the backs improving, but it was 3-0 at HT . Ashley seemed to make 2 tackles at once, to stop an OA move, Tom and Frazer started to find some holes in the defence and better rucking was seen, but great OA hands and ripping, led to 2 further scores. Mat was unlucky not to give us a consolation score. 5-0. Nick took charge of this squad, while Colin reffed. Watford were also present, but they strangely declined the offer of a game. Perhaps they were scared!? We can surely do better against the more evenly matched Datchworth next week?

Vikings Squad.
Taylor, Aaron, OJ, Aless, William J, Max, Bradley, Conor, Toby, Andrew, Russell, Sam J
Game 1 v OAs C 2-3 Max 2, William J
Game 2 v OAs B 0-3
Game 3 v OAs D 3 ½ -0 Max 2 ½ , William J.

Trevor and Adrian took care of the Vikings (Vs) with Steve Maxwell taking the reporters pad. Thanks! These 3 games against weaker opponents, allowed us to put together better team play, with 2 wins out of 3 games. We were 1-0 down in Game 1, but 2 good tries from Max gave us the lead at HT. Great team play and keen rucking, allowed us to get home 2-3 with a scorching long run from one of the days standout players, William J. It was good for the S’s parents to hear of a victory on this pitch.
Game 2 saw us lose 0-3 to a useful OA B team.( Tom joked that perhaps they had an OAP side we could play!) This was a hard defensive game and showed what a tough squad the OAs possess. Game 3 saw another victory, against a very inexperienced looking D team. Max got his Hat-trick for the day before William got over in the 2nd half. Max, looking increasingly powerful, got his “4th”, only to have it disallowed due to his confusion over the try line (the neighbouring team had taken the cones away, thus confusing the poor lad!) He made up for it with his 4th official try of the day to round things off, 0-3.
Trevor praised the whole Viking squad for their teamwork and try scoring. It may be that some Vikings will become Saxons next week, to see if they can “cut the mustard” at a higher level, against Datchworth and presumably Welwyn, for the Tri team Morris cup. Ashley was named player of the week for the Saxons, for his tackling and never say die running. See you next week. (Bring on Les Blues!)