U11s - Royston at home - match report 30 Mar 08

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To repeat the recent understatement of the year - this was not our finest hour. For much of the morning it looked as though the squad was still recovering from too many Easter eggs and the lost hour's sleep as we put up a show lacking in pretty much anything. And yet there were some bright moments and it says something if we can win two matches playing so far off our best.

After having lost matchplay the previous couple of weeks due to the weather, and the rain of the previous day, it was actually a relief to be able to play at all but it turned out to be a beautiful day with the sun shining. (It made it all the more amazing to see photos from the "snow-day" on tour which had happened exactly one week before.) Because of the holidays Royston were short of a full team and we lent them a couple of our players for each match. As it was we were a bit light ourselves - and several of those who were playing were on varying kinds of medicines - so there was less scope for switching around than normal.

It's hard to put a finger on exactly what was going wrong. Certainly the coaching team was completely at a loss for the first hour as to what to do (other than kick the water bottles around) - but it was certainly clear that the team was taking its usual slow start to an extreme. Indeed in the first half of the first match we never got free from the Royston stranglehold and out of our own half. The first match in particular was strewn with mistakes as Royston was allowed to break through our defensive line on three occasions, including the first play of the match.

When the backs got clean ball then we looked dangerous and as the matches went on and the forwards got stuck in, increasingly there was clean space to be found. On the other hand there were some poor choices of defensive decisions made with too many passes going around in the danger zone around the try area instead of simply running with the ball to allow the forwards to get in to support.

Each of the players we lent to Royston turned in a good committed performance - something the Royston coach commented on and thanked us for. Given the way we were playing for much of the day it appeared to us that they were actually performing better for the opposition than for Hitchin: most perplexing and exasperating. At least none of them had the nerve to score against us, apart from one conversion kick by Peter (despite my best "encouragement"). In any case a big thanks for "volunteering" to: Joe & Tom, Peter & Beth, Chas & Kate.

Match 37 v. Royston Lost 7-21 (HT 0-14)
Peter, Will, Ellis, Calum, Lewis, Harry, Dominic, James D, Ruiri, Beth, Simon, James W. (Brandon made a brief blood/knock-on-head substitution for James W)

Try: Ruiri - possibly the one bright moment in the first match when a set play came off beautifully. Dom took out of the scrum to draw the backs over and Rui crossed over to go the other way. Con: Peter
In the final play of the match Ellis came close to pushing over from around 10 metres but the ball was held up. This was the second time this move had been tried; the first time Joe read it perfectly and managed to hold up Ellis (!).

Match 38 v. Royston Won 21-12 (HT 14-5)
Joe, Will, Ellis, Calum, Lewis, Chas, Dom, Brandon, Ruiri, Simon, Kate, Harry

Tries:
Simon - took a nice catch across the pitch and ran in from 30 metres. Con: Dom
Ruiri - picked up loose ball out of the maul and fought his way through with support from the forwards who were able to split him from the main pack in the try area in order to allow the ball to be touched down
Ruiri - Brandon made some good ground and once the forwards had got there to secure the ball Rui was there once again to capitalise (Con: Dom)

Match 39 v. Royston Won 12-7 (HT 7-0)
Joe (Brandon), Will, Peter, Calum, Lewis, Harry, Dom, James D, Rui, Simon, Tom, James W

Tries:
Ruiri - out of some scrappy play near our try line, Simon emerged with the ball to make huge territory and when tackled turned round to find Rui in support and passed out smoothly for the final few yards. Con: Dom
Ruiri - another lovely piece of interplay as Dom once again drifted across deliberately drawing the defence with him to pop up the pass as Rui cut back inside. (Dom narrowly missed the conversion when it rattled the cross bar)

By the final half of the three matches we seemed to be firing on at least three of our four cylinders: we had it all there technically but we were still lacking some determination and intensity. Next week's training - scheduled to be the last of the season! - will therefore be very important. And perhaps everyone next week should wear yellow bibs since they evidently confer much magical power to whomsoever they are bestowed.

Finally a couple of things to note on the County festival (to be played at Hertford this year, the first time we’ve played there since the U8s!). Firstly the U11s are playing on SATURDAY 19 April and second, like Cambridge festival, there will be a limit on the number of players we can take. Alex will make an announcement on the squad at next Sunday’s training session (so let’s hope it doesn’t rain!).