U8’s Match report: St Neots at home 24th January 2016

Well as always it was a pleasure to watch the U8’s in full flow. This weekend it was time to host our local derby rivals St Neots Saints. After winning the away leg the team had a lot to live up to at home. This was especially the case, as due to the Christmas break and a few match cancellations, they hadn’t played a proper match for a while. Well we didn’t need to worry, did we?

The guys and girls played their best rugby to date winning all their games:

Team 1:
5-2
7-2
7-2

Team 2:
11-6
8-2
8-3

Of particular note was the team starting to pass the ball around a bit. Pass of the day must go to Travis whose pass, amazingly caught by William, was across almost the whole width of the pitch. Both Henry and Lake started to show their running skills with the ball in hand. If it hadn’t been for a tag falling off (Lake) and the ref blowing the whistle for a tag that hadn’t been taken (Henry), both would have scored a try (the ref was great though and counted both as tries). Both Henry and Lake were also showing some great passing as well. Brilliant stuff.

Across the teams, tries were being run in all over the place. It was so exciting seeing running rugby and great support play connecting with some lovely passing. The team are really also developing a great awareness of where they are on the pitch, staying well clear of the touch lines combining some fast straight runs with some great dodging and weaving. It certainly had St Neots floundering.

Our tagging was also great with so many turnover balls I lost count. There was also some great opportunistic play. If the opposition spill the ball and it’s on the floor…pick it up and run like the wind – the try line beckons.

Tough man of the day went to Edward who got a pass in the eye – ouch ! but after a couple of minutes on the side-lines got straight back into the thick of it.

The player that made me smile the most was Charlie. After turning over the ball on our own try line and taking the restart, Charlie told me he was going to score a try. He then proceeded to run the length of the pitch to score, with St Neots players diving for tags all over the place…and missing. Great stuff 

The only area that we need to keep our nerve on is our defensive line. We have the all-important tournaments coming up and it would be an absolute travesty if we don’t come away with some silverware this year. A very disciplined team however will still pick holes in our defensive line. Attacking rugby – no contest. Defensive line – still room for improvement.

Player of the day went to our main man Travis (as well as best new haircut and kit). He showed great captaincy skills, tagged like mad, threw a super human pass across the pitch for a classic William try, and darted, weaved and ran his socks off all morning. Superb and well done chap!

Next week’s game is away at Peterborough RUFC near the Peterborough Greyhound track

Address: Second Drove, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire PE1 5XA

If folks can get there by 9.45am that would be great. See you all on Sunday