Match Report for Sunday Nov 15th 2015

Well, what a morning of rugby. It was with trepidation that the team travelled all the way over to Wisbech, the team’s nemesis last season, and one of the very few teams as the U7s we didn’t win against. They also have got a coach who could strike fear into any player (but who is rather good and was a pretty fair referee).

The team knew they had a job to do and boy did they do it. The first game saw the team win 7 tries to 5. It was great to see Amelia and Felicity playing their first proper match with some great running, and you could slowly see the off-side rule starting to be understood – we will continue to work on that. Every time I turned around Travis seemed to be running the length of the pitch to score another try, and his work-rate all day was top notch. Alex provided some great support and scored a couple of cracking tries, while Archie, Owen and the rest of the team kept that defensive line strong and disciplined. It was a well fought game and a great win.

The second match saw the team front up against some of Wisbech’s toughest players, particularly Jemima, who must be one of the fastest mini-rugby players in Cambridgeshire. Last season she cut through the team like a knife through butter…..not this time! Our team’s defensive play was awesome. Time after time, we stood our ground, kept our cool, and grabbed those tags, and in the end Wisbech just ran out of space and time. Charlie and Felix were great on the wings. Bailey again was a tag machine, with Jacob, Edward and William, as always doing some great running down the centre. The support play was again fantastic. Our tagging was so good that we turned over Wisbech ball two times, and oh my word did that get their coaches rattled. These two turn-overs proved crucial in an amazing 7-5 win.

The next game saw the teams mixed up a bit. Again all the players gelled brilliantly. I don’t think I’ve seen Lake take so many tags, brilliant stuff. Archie, Felix and Jacob ran tries in all over the place. The team turned over the ball, stole spilled balls off the ground, and altogether played out of their skins, to such an extent that Wisbech didn’t get a sniff of the try line. The game was won 7-0.

In our last game, the team again played extremely well. We just lost our composure in defence, with our defensive line starting to wander as players got a bit tired. We also all need to remember that at U8s it’s non-contact and we must make sure we don’t hand-off players, or plough into them. This and a couple of sloppy passes meant that we turned over the ball a few times and eventually lost 3-6
All in all, the team played the best rugby of the season. Our defence, support play and running were all superb, and towards the end the entire team were keeping on-side – a significant achievement.

Player of the week for his great support play, spectacular tries and fantastic “mud-stick-man making abilities”, went to Alex. Your trophy will be with you next week, when Tom remembers it!