Enormous Win for U'14s

BLISTERING !

On a very mild and still day at the Hugin, the hosts took on Southampton, an under strength but up and coming side who could have sprung a surprise . However Julian Spiers, head coach of the U14's had asked his side to focus on running hard and straight, taking the tackle and therefore keeping the width free for the explosive players to exploit the space.

From the off, in front of a boisterous crowd of 21, the team seemed to have listened to the coach. In the first minute the space was there for Jaff to open the scoring with a try , and unfortunately Chris unluckily struck the post with the following conversion. Four minutes later, after some fiery work by Callum, Ben S flew down the right wing to score a try duly converted by Chris. A line out deep in the opponents 22 then led to Timmy driving forward breaking two tackles and passing to Ben S to score again, with a simple conversion under the posts by Chris. The try of the match was scored on 12 minutes as Ben S once again took the ball, this time deep in his own half, with an magical run leaving the opposition in his wake to score, again converted by Chris, making it 24-0 after 12 minutes!

On 19 minutes some aggressive and intelligent work by Callum and Joe Tots allowed Timmy to take the ball and score with a further conversion by Chris. Although it was one way traffic, the forwards were still having to work hard, and Henry and Joe G exhibited strength and power driving their colleagues up the pitch. In the 23rd minute, Noah stayed on his feet under heavy pressure to offload to Jaff, who sprinted clear and scored duly converted by Chris. The forwards then showed their steel, with Joe Totts sprinting onto a loose ball to feed Henry who smashed the ball, and some opponents who were in his way, over the try line, with a successful conversion by the trusted boot of Chris, who rounded off the half with a breathtaking explosion of pace to score, leaving the score line 50-0 at the turnaround.

The second half began much as the first, with Jaff taking a lovely pass from Harry to score his third try, then on 37 minutes after strong running by James Wales and good follow up work, Jay broke through two tackles to score a great try under the posts with Gareth cooly converting. Dylan exhibited textbook tackling in the middle of the park to thwart a Southampton break, however they did score after heavy pressure from their own pack on the left wing.

It was a very useful workout, with the lads showing that when you get to your feet quickly the pace of the game remains high which suits the positive approach to rugby that the team exhibits. Thank you also to the lads who supported the Southampton team and stood in for them , still making for a very entertaining game.