Saxons Stride On

Hi Saxons,

Congratulations for your performance on Sunday. You welcomed Havant well, trained hard and then put in a great performance in all four matches. You have really closed the gap and remained competitive with the core teams in Hampshire. What is really pleasing is that you have done it with teams of mixed experience, you do it with changing team set ups and everybody takes charge of the ball, commits to the tackles and knows what they are doing on the rugby field.

You really do have strength in depth across the squad and you share the responsibility in attack and defence. We are not dependant on one or two players, you are all capable of making a difference in a match and you support each other really well.

Yes we have players who consistently make breaks, break tackles and set up or score tries, we have players who commit hard to try-saving tackles, but they cannot do it on their own. They need a strong team around them to win the ball and support attacks and in defence, to chase kicks and put pressure on teams, and that is what you are now getting right.

I think Havant were quite surprised at how strong you were. When we visited them in September they pushed us off all the rucks and ran right through us, I think we scored one try against them in four matches. Not so on Sunday, you dominated the rucks, you cut them down in the tackles and wrapped them up in the mauls.

You scored tries, and lots of them. I was refereeing and trying to keep score and record try scorers but missed one or two, so please remind me who you were for the record:

Game One:

Chats Saxons 4 – Havant One 4 Opening try to Reese Well done! 2 Tries to Matthew Thomas, 4th try to?

Matt Saxons 1 – Havant Two 2 – Saxons try to?

Game 2:

Chats Saxons 1 – Havant Two 3 – Much closer than the score suggests and the Saxons were down to 9 players Try: Matthew Thomas

Matt Saxons 4 – Havant One 4 – 3 Tries to Ollie Davis, 1 to?

Congratulations to Will Hutchinson who was dynamic throughout the matches, has been charging hard at defences all season and is really linking attacks together and keeping the ball alive- great performance from the PLayer of the Week.

Next Sunday we are hosting Andover for the first time ever. Andover are a strong club and in the top tier in Hampshire, but they can be challenged – they drew against Havant 1-1 in our U12 Tournament in November.

If you carry on playing as you have done against Fareham Heathens and Havant I am sure you will get your chances on Sunday.