Salisbury Under 14’s 34 : 0 Bradford on Avon U14s

In poor weather conditions with strong wind and rain throughout, Salisbury kicked-off their Wiltshire Cup campaign with a very encouraging performance. Dominance at the breakdown, great support work in the loose and a sound defensive display were the foundations which allowed strong running centre Peter Marshall-Rees to excel in open-space, scoring a hat-trick of tries.

In such conditions any return from the line-out was welcome, but the pack produced admirably in winning ball and allowing Jack Gurney to release his backs where Josh Lawrence ably pulled the strings, mixing the game with his passing and kicking.

But it was Marshall-Rees who caught the eye, breaking free near the left touchline to score untouched in the first half. Playing down in the second-half, if Salisbury continued their all-round game they would score tries. Zac Green at open-side, Captain Richard Cox at No. 8 and Josh Batemen on his debut at blind-side and lock caused by the early replacement of Ollie McEwan who had struggled to shake off his illness, were all prominent not least in dominating the tackle area. Cox’s all round game and strength earned him two tries, the second after a great counter-attack down the right, with Sam Hudson, recently on for our other debutante Leighton Dabill, cutting a great running line to split the Bradford defence.

With the backs first-up defence much improved on last year, marshalled by the consistent Matt Dodkins, chances were created as Bradford struggled to cope with the pressure. From one Marshall-Rees broke free to score his second, before finishing some fine support play and offloading from forwards Alfie Sevier, Luc Llewellyn-Roberts and Bryn Knight to complete his hat-trick.

For a period Salisbury let themselves down with a succession of mistakes: knock-ons, penalties and poor kicking which relieved the pressure on Bradford, but they finished with a flourish inspired by a storming run from Will Shaw, taken on by Hugh Hitchings (back on for Jake Hartley who had taken a bang on his neck) before a series of offloads released Dodkins to scoot in for the 6th try. Lewis Rutledge converted, adding to an earlier success, to complete the scoring.

A good start and signs that we can keep our defensive shape allowing us to put pressure on the opposition. Stiffer tests will come later in the season, but with competition in the forwards and a back-line capable of scoring tries, the next few weeks will be interesting.