Saxons Show Attacking Flair Against US Portsmouth

The Saxons have enjoyed playing close matches against US Portsmouth (USP) since U8 rugby, but had always found USP too strong in the past, but on Sunday the team produced their best display of the season to place US Portsmouth under immense pressure right from the start.

The Saxons have not been known as team that starts well in competetive matches, and have usually fallen behind early on, but not so recently. The Saxons kicked to USP at the start and immediately put US Portsmouth under great pressure with a strong, quick defence and determined counter-rucking to win the ball back. The Saxons then switched from defence to attack and moved the ball wide to Jack who had some work to do, but jinked and powered over for a great opening try within a minute.

USP opted to receive again and the Saxons did it again, this time fly-half Matthew T backing himself to finish after a solid side-step and dummy opened a gap and the Saxons were two ahead in as many minutes. The Saxons tails were up now, and there was a concerted period of attack, but USP rallied, their defence held firm and they mounted some counter-attacks but the Saxons defence was well organised and our counter-rucking was telling, winning the ball back and going on the attack again. Scrum-half Matthew C was next to re-open the scoring, with a great sniping run from the back of the solid scrum. The flood gates opened with the Saxons in full flow with further tries from Liam C, Ben B and Jack in quick succession before USP could react and work a strong move of their own to score in the corner after a determined run from their strong winger. The first session concluded with Ollie bursting through to score a try with the score at 35-5.

The second and third sessions were much closer, with USP much more in contention and fighting hard for the ball. USP scored again, but tries from Liam C and Rob H took the score difference to 35 points. The match continued and there was another score for Rob and three more for Jack, but the result was settled.

This was a very strong performance from a confident and in-form Saxons side against a strong and proficient USP team. The game was won in the first 15 minutes, something the Saxons have never been able to do before, showing the value of playing with intensity and focus from the start and pushing an advantage home when a team are on the back foot. Some of the play was very clinical and we saw training ground moves being used, the pack working together to make breaks and offload and sensible changes in play when opportunities arose, as we saw with the Matthew T and Matthew C tries.

The fact that there were six try scorers from a forward, half-backs, centres and a winger suggests a team with ability and commitment across the team who can mix it up and vary their style of play.