Short Trip Suits Vikings

PARTIAL REPORT - GOLDS TO FOLLOW

It's great to be in the position where we can now divide up two teams without any real thought regarding ability levels and produce results week in week out. And it's taken the opening match over the last couple of weeks where the two Vikings sides have faced each other to determine which side would hold the title Blues and which would be Golds. There is no real science to it either, with the winners of the head to head holding the mantle of the Blues Team. Therefore the Teams against Fareham Heathens were as follows:

Blues
George M
George H
Jack
Chris
Tom
Alec
Ben
Dylan S

Golds
TEAM TO FOLLOW

Blues 4 - Golds 1

REPORT TO FOLLOW

Fareham Heathens A 1 - Blues 4

Another away fixture where the Vikings end up playing on an undersized pitch, which unfortunately restricts our attacking ability with the squad having a wealth of pace. This did not dampen the Blues enthusiasm to try and move the ball wide at pace when given the opportunity to attack, Blues started the match and retained the ball through multiple phases of possession, either off loading or locking the ball down in the tackle. The Heathens side were making plenty of tackles in defence, although given the width of the pitch, the task of lining up attackers wasn't overtaxing for either side. The first phase of of Blues attack ended up as a turn over of possession due to the ball being carried into touch. This is a habit that we're normally highly critical of as a squad, with the players sidelining themselves for the offence if we are carrying replacements, however this week (trying not to sound like a broken record) the situation was caused by the pitch, not the players.

Fareham's first attack was short lived as the Blues defence were punishing the Home Team with the double tackle and even though some of our lead tacklers weren't as noticeable as they had been in previous weeks, the ball was sent loose and the Blues recovered possession. The next attack saw good driving runs from Jack and Dylan S, pushing the Blues to within 5m of the Heathens line. George H got the ball and passed to George M who made a break and was tackled just short, he passed the ball from the tackle to Alec who pressed wide then cut in, ducking under the final tackler to score the Blues opener.

Again from the restart Fareham failed to capitalise on their possession and this time they were forced into touch by Chris and George M just short of the Blues line. Having to attack from deep in their own half of the pitch (not too deep, see previous regarding pitch size), George H passed to Ben who took on a couple of tacklers and off loaded to Tom. After hearing the normal weekly instruction from the sidelines "burners Tom", blasted wide but was caught by a Fareham defender just over halfway. Tom passed from the tackle to Jack, who surged forwards and despite having two defenders hanging onto him, managed to keep driving and cross the Heathens line for the Blues second try. Another Fareham attack ended up with the ball going into touch and the ref blew for halftime.

The second half saw a quick response from the Home Team who retained possession well and crossed the Blues line after only 5 or 6 phases. From the restart Gosport pushed into Fareham territory with good runs from Ben, Jack, Chris and George M. Dylan took the crash ball from the tackle and offloaded to George H who passed to Alec, just about to push round the Fareham defender, Alec was caught by a high tackle and the Blues reset from the penalty. The ball was passed through a couple of sets of hands to Tom who took advantage of the Fareham defence still being congregated around the area of the original offence and blasted wide of the Fareham outside man to score in the corner.

The next Fareham attack was awesome to watch from a Blues viewpoint as the tempo and commitment to the tackle increased by the Gosport side. Clearly rattled the Fareham attack went into panic mode as Blues defenders hit them time and time again behind the advantage line, causing them to eventually spill the ball some 15m back from where they had their original possession. From the turnover Chris popped the ball to Ben who with his usual ease rolled out of the first tackle and stepped around the final defender too score. Blues were 4 - 1 up.

Now normally at this point having reached the final score I'd gloss over the details of the final few plays until the ref blew for full time. However this week we saw a piece of action that resulted in a player receiving one of the individual weekly awards.

Having been penalised for pushing a player into touch, Fareham relinquished possession to the Blues again. Dylan S received the ball and crashed over the Heathens line for what the spectators thought was try number five, however the ref had blown for an infringement and penalised Dylan for handing off (fair enough, probably wouldn't have needed to on a wider pitch.) As the Gosport players were walking back, Heathens decided to take a quick tap and go, as the defence turned, they were faced with the Fareham attack coming at full pace. Dylan stormed forward to meet the lead attacker and put in a tackle without slowing down, which cut the player in half, caused him to release the ball and drove him back 2 or 3 metres. It was up there with the North and Hibbard tackles for the Welsh against the All Blacks. As the ref treated the Fareham player who was clearly shaken by the tackle, every Viking player was telling Dylan how 'awesome' the tackle had been, clearly no need for discussion on the Blues Tackle Of The Week.

Fareham Heathen BaBa's 7 - Golds 7

REPORT TO FOLLOW

Players Of The Week

Blues

Player - Chris
Try - Tom
Tackle - Dylan S

Golds/BaBa's

Player - Charlotte
Try - Kacper
Tackle - Max

Welcome to our two newest players, William Kirby and Dylan Nelson, who played this week for the Golds. I hope they enjoyed it and become a regular part of the Vikings squad. I think it highlights also how well the Golds did this week as neither of these players had previous rugby experience and they fitted in well to the team, who supported and encouraged them.