Saxons settle into the Season

The Saxons visited Petersfield for the traditional Round Robin with other local teams. This fixture is great as it provides an early opportunity to test the seasons new skills in a friendly competetive format. The players and coaches get a chance to see how we compete, where our strengths are and where we need to do more work. There were two teams from Petersfield, a Havant team and players from Portsmouth and Alresford who unfortunately weren't able to form complete teams, so a Barbarians team was formed.

Petersfield are a quality side and it was no surprise we found our match against them hard. It was not that they were much better than us, just more competetive for the ball at the rucks and worked well together to keep the ball. We were not allowed to play our game, we were on the back foot, stretched in defence and eventually dis-organised; all because we didn't win the ball. So, we learned that we need to be ready to compete for the ball right from the start, push players off the ball in the rucks and keep the ball in our hands. 0-25

The performance against the Petersfield B Team was much better, but we still did not take charge of the game, allowed them to ruck over us and take our ball, but they did not break down our defence. The match was very close but they edged us out 0-5.

The Saxons were now a bit disappointed and a bit fired up and there was no such mistakes against Havant. Interestingly Havant were a bigger side physically, but with determination, technique and teamwork we pushed them off the ball, attacked together, kept the ball alive through sensible offloads and passes. The team had woken up and we won 15-10.

For the match against the Barbarians, the team was working well, clearing out at the rucks, retaining the ball and passing to players in space with pace and we took our chances. This was a much better game, it was our game and you enjoyed it 25-0

So, we finished the fixture with 8 tries for and 8 against so 40-40 overall, we were the third placed team behind Petersfield A and B but second placed Club.

We need to work on keeping the ball through rucking and creating space and overaps in attack so we can exploit defences. We also need to be ready to compete from the ball right from the start. If we had faced either of the Petersfield teams later in the day I think the results may have been closer or different, but that is rugby. It was a great day, you played great rugby and coaches, parents and players should be very happy and proud.

A special mention goes to the Saxon Barbarians, Ben Dawson, Harriett Millar, Conor Lewis, Will Hutchinson and Harvey Joyce. It is very difficult to play for another team when you care so passionately about GFRC Saxons, but you played really well, you were stars in that team and stood out and we were proud of you. Ben Dawson was awarded Player of the Match for his outstanding performance in the BaaBaas, galvanising his team and taking them so close to scoring and winning, a great individual performance, well done!