Fixture

Chepstow RFC | Under 16s 22 - 28 Llandaff North RFC | Under 16s

Match Report
22 October 2017 / Team News

Match Report u16s v Llandaff North RFC

The boys were starting their 3rd game in 8 days and turned up looking battle hardened and focused on the job in hand. They knew they were in for a tough day against a team with a good pedigree.

 

That pedigree showed very early as one of their speedsters took on our defence. A lack of committed tackling gave him the space he needed to stretch his legs and before we knew it we were chasing the game. Pleasingly, the boys upped their work rate and started to commit more bodies to the breakdown. The back row of Spencer, Joe B and Will were very physical around the fringes. Jake Summers hit almost every ruck and constantly disrupted opposition ball. Callum, Dan and Lewis also put in some good tackles and carries and the ever dependable Angus used his experience to put himself in the right place at the right time.

 

With the forwards starting to fire, Edwin had more opportunity to use his excellent passing to let Joe launch attack after attack with Thomas and Keegan combining to release Jake & Tom Wacey at the Llandaff North defence. It worked, with Thomas scoring under the posts to take the lead. More Chepstow pressure soon followed with the visitors kicking long in an attempt to gain territory. As ever, Morgan was more than up to the task at fullback and he returned the kicks with interest on most occasions. Llandaff North were hanging but showed their danger with a 50 metre breakaway try out of nowhere to take the lead. Half-time 12-14 down.

 

The boys knew what they had to do and their response was excellent in the 2nd half. Joe T and Thomas switched 10 & 12 to better exploit the defensive weaknesses of the opposition and this paid good dividends with two unconverted tries scored by Thomas and Keegan. Both were excellent moves and showed the great skill and composure that we now have in the team. Chepstow pressed on, with Edwin and Joe T combining to control territory by using the favourable wind. Lloyd Voaden had come on for Lewis and was making a good impact whilst his brother Morgan came into the back row and made several impressive surges upfield. Kieran and Will Morgan also joined the fray and made excellent contributions.

 

At 22-14, several well shaped attacks just resulted in a failure to score as a very desperate defence created enough pressure to force mistakes and halt the attacks without scoring. As time moved on, Llandaff North had barely been in Chepstow’s half but another breakaway try, a full 80 metres was a difficult pill to swallow. What should have been a 7 point play to us, killing the game off, was actually a decisive score to bring them back into the game, 22-21 and nerves frayed.

 

From the restart, more Chepstow pressure was applied and more scoring opportunities spurned. Some poor discipline gave the visitors an opportunity to kick out of their own half. From nowhere a kick was launched 50 metres downfield, when the furthest they had kicked previously was about 15 metres, into our territory – the omens weren’t good! With a minute remaining they won their lineout and a defensive mix-up between the Chepstow back row and half-backs allowed the Llandaff North outside half through the gap to score under the posts. Final score 22-28 much to everyone’s despair.

 

Things to be pleased about:

  • We played all the rugby and had parity or greater at all aspects of the game
  • Commitment was generally good
  • Some of the lines of running and handling was excellent

 

Things to work on

  • Getting drawn into contact when we’re attacking, we have no need to play a tight physical game when we have the beating of the team in the backs
  • Defensive line speed and man marking was again an issue and was the key reason that their speedsters had time and space to get up to top speed
  • Decision making near the try line with several overlaps not utilised

 

On we go……

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