Fixture

Team – Otis ©, Will, Flynn, Owen, Osian, Zach, James, Kameli, Harry, Travis, Tomas, Xander, Amelie

So, the time had come for the young charges from Chepstow to step-up to the next level on their rugby journey following the pathway to the Principality Stadium….

Boosted by a host of new recruits and returning players over the summer break, Chepstow RFC U9s were ready and roaring to get stuck into their first contact game of this 2018/19 season, a special one for Chepstow RFC as the club enters its 150^th year in 2019. To help mark this special season, parent Phil Briley through his company Graham FM have sponsored the team which has allowed each player and coach to be presented with a team jacket for matches prior to today’s game.

The game kicked off with NHSOB on the ball to be met immediately by a fantastic tackle by Flynn, Tomas soon joined in with what would be a morning of ferocious tackling. Chepstow managed to secure the first six tackle turnover of the game which was followed by a few probing runs by the Chepstow team which was then finished off with a strong run through the NHSOB defence by Tomas for the first try of the game. A knock-on gave Chepstow the first scrum of the day and the ball again, which saw Flynn make a weaving run into the NHSOB defence. A few six tackle turnovers by both teams brought the first half close to its conclusion but for a late surge down the wing by NHSOB, Zach in hot pursuit could not put his hands on the NHSOB player, luckily for Chepstow Otis had been tracking across the pitch and caught the player tackling him into touch 5 metres out from the try line.    

The second half continued in the same vein with Zach putting in tackle after tackle to halt NHSOB’s attack. A knock-on led to another scrum from which Zach, who was playing scrum half, picked the ball and chose to go the blind-side where Otis was ready to pounce to put Chepstow two tries up. Xander, on his debut for Chepstow, made some great tackles and didn’t hesitate to go in strong on a much bigger boy. Continued strong play by Chepstow led to a number of additional six tag turnovers and a full length of the field run by Amelie to score anther try for Chepstow. With the clock counting down the Chepstow faithful were looking at a clean sheet by their team, but then a NHSOB play put them in a great position only for player of the match Zach to put in a strong tackle to close the NHSOB attack and the game.

For their first contact game the Chepstow players performed exceptionally well. Using their ring-of-steel to make some strong purposeful tackles coupled with direct probing runs they developed space to score some fantastic team tries. A 3 try to 0 score line was fully deserved and sets up the season perfectly.

Tries – Tomas Briley, Otis Smith & Amelie Thomason

Player of the Match – Zach Betty

Additional Time - Super keen following the official game both coaching teams agreed to a further 10 minutes of rugby to give all players more game time. The additional time saw Chepstow run in 3 tries to 1 as their confidence grew. Try scorers during this extra time were Xander, Zach & Osian.