Fixture

The U14's travelled to Bristol to play against an unknown St Bernadettes team. After changing, the squad and supporters made their second journey of the day to find the pitch!

When we got there we found a pitch that was barely playable with large areas covered with standing water and a howling wind that would clearly benefit the team playing with it.

The whole team identified the way to play when questioned during the warm up. No risk rugby was called for with offloads being kept to a minimum and constant support of the ball carrier to create quick ball from the breakdown.

Close contact skills were worked on during the warm up with the forwards going through line out routines where the ball was held and driven and then followed by powerful forward drives to get the team over the gain line. The backs worked on their running lines and bringing the ball back to the forwards with hard aggressive running lines.

Once the warm up was complete, Briden had the final word and urged the team to work hard and play as a team. In the first half we were playing into the wind and the team knew exactly what was required.

From the kick off the forwards drove into the heart of the opposition and created quick ball at the base of the rucks. Instead of going wide the forwards took responsibility and called for repeated Rhino balls to gain yard after yard down the middle of the pitch. Support was excellent with several players doing the unselfish work of clearing out the rucks to provide more ball. The biggest threat to the team was the appalling underfoot conditions and the condition of the ball, which had grown in size and weight due the layer of mud now surrounding it. The pressure was bound to tell and from some continued drives close to the line, Kieran got his hands on the ball and dived over under the posts. Ben converted for a 7-0 lead.

Our ball carriers were now making real inroads, Nathan from the base of the scrum was proving very difficult to bring down and made several strong surges into St Bernadettes half. Forwards continued to support and the backs grew in confidence and began putting more width on our game. From one move, Sam was given the ball with a little more time and attacked the space in front of him. The defence struggled to close him down and Sam showed strength and balance to cross for our second try of the game.

We had 7 substitutes for today's game and that can sometimes prove difficult to organise and can unsettle the team. A real bonus of today was that we could change 7 players at a time and no difference in performance could be seen. In fact the reserves added real impact and direction to the team as they found that they gained tactical awareness watching from the touch line. This enabled them to make good decisions and allowed the team to keep the momentum.

The team continued to dominate territory and possession. The only time the opposition entered our half was through kicking with the wind. The wings, Steven and Ieuan, worked hard to support Will and as a back three, dealt with any danger that the opposition presented. One passage of play from our own line summed up the first half. Under pressure the forwards kept the ball tight and made several close drives around the fringe of the rucks. The back row of Will, Taylor and Macsyn gained a few metres with each carry. Hayden and Sam in the second row continued tirelessly to hit ruck after ruck. More strong carries from the front row of Lewis, Jayden and Briden enabled the team to move towards the 25m line and only then was the ball given width. Given the conditions the ball was brilliantly moved across the back line and more ground was made. A sensational team try went begging through an over ambitious final pass, but it summed up the attitude and ability of the team in the first half.

As the half came to a close, more tight forward play led to a try from Will and another excellent team try with great handling from most of the team before the ball reached Nathan in space and he ran aggressively to the line from around 40 metres out. One of the tries was converted by Ben and the halftime score was St Bernadettes 0 Chepstow  24.

At halftime the team spoke about being more patient with ball in hand and being accurate at the breakdown to ensure that the backs received good quality ball in conditions that were proving to be very difficult.

The team could have chosen to kick everything in the 2nd half but decided to keep the ball in hand and play with as much width as the conditions allowed.

Some of the rugby played in the 2nd half was outstanding with the forwards driving strongly and the backs showing real skill to move the ball wide at every possible opportunity. St Bernadettes were not going to roll over and they continued to disrupt and tackle strongly throughout. St Bernadettes attitude to defence and little mistakes in our game stopped us from scoring the points that some of our play deserved. The quality of rugby produced was even more remarkable given the pitch condition. Jem, who had kindly agreed to referee, could not set a scrum the entire 2nd half without first having to move to a more desirable spot. This generally meant finding 6 inches of mud rather than 6 inches of water! 

When we managed to play error free Rugby, we managed to score 3 excellent team tries in the 2nd half. The first of which saw Josh enter the line at pace and throw a hint of a dummy before straightening past the final defender to score under the posts. This has become a a real feature of his game. He also converted his own try.

The next try came from more intense forward pressure and Hayden who worked hard throughout the game in the 2nd row picked up the ball and plunged over the line for his first try for the club. A great reward for hitting ruck after ruck for most of the game.

Well done Hayden.

The final score came from Steven who ran aggressively to finish off another excellent team try that combined both forwards and backs in handling the ball effectively to put others into space. 

The final score was 43-0 and the team then headed off for a well deserved shower.

Things to be pleased about.

• Tactical understanding of what was required in difficult conditions and the ability to carry out the game plan.
• Some excellent skill levels on show. Quality and timing of passes and ball presentation at breakdown were very good.

Things to work on.

• Although the opposition didn't score today, our first up tackling against big ball carriers is still too high. This allows opposition to build momentum.
• We also allowed their runners to go around us, instead of pushing up from the outside to close them down. Only some excellent cover defence stopped their attacks and we cannot rely on this all the time.

Well done everyone. On to next week.