First game back after 13 months, away from home, new laws, new positions, three injured players early on, a big, confident opposition, they played 60 minutes of rugby and never conceded a try! It was a tremendous defensive team performance from the first tackle of the game, Niall Moss set the standard and his team mates stepped up. Competition at the tackle and ruck was fierce from both sides and the referee wasted no time in penalising high tackles and not rolling away quickly enough. You could see the boys were a little rusty. Lots of early turnovers made the game slightly less structured than the coaches had hoped for but the Celts stick to the plan and got the ball out wide as soon as possible. And once we got the ball wide in their 22, we had Joshua Fernandez skipping back inside the last defender and diving over for the first try of the game. Well done to Elliott Giles for stepping up to take the first ever conversion kick for the Celts. 45 minutes then passed before the next score. The boys were put under tremendous pressure throughout and were camped out in our own 22 but by transferring that pressure back to Havant with coordinated defensive line speed and good support play, the knock ons and dropped balls started creeping into the Havant back line. The pressure put on the Havant back line by Harry Cromie was intense and persistent; well done! Kicking for Touch after a penalty is one of the new laws the boys quickly got used to. William May showed that practise pays off when he arrowed a kick in the corner from the 10m line. Great stuff and the crowd loved it!! Lineouts were another new element but the boys did really well in the circumstances; working the ball through the hands at pace. Thomas Hutchinson really started to dictate the pace as the game went on, with Elliott Giles outside him they were making breaks from within their own 22. Jake used his new found speed to blast through the centre and after handing off the last couple of defenders, raced for the line. He just loves scoring at Havant! Thomas slotted the conversion for the extra two. Thomas wasn’t done there and after a few earlier breaks, was put through by Elliott for a wonderful, long range try under the posts. He kicked the extras too. Havant were tiring and heads were dropping. The Celts smelled blood! Quickly, Elliott set Josh free down the wing to score our fourth in the corner. There could have been more as the gaps started to open up. W0-24. There were too many moments of individual skill and creativity to mention them all and we’re so proud of the players resilience and bravery in difficult circumstances but most pleasing, it was a great team performance! Well done to all the boys, a great start to the season!

Thank you to all the parents for getting the boys to the ground early and encouraging them throughout. Great work from all the coaches and first aiders.
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