Salisbury Festival

17 October 2010

Salisbury RFC U10 match reports

The first hard frost of the year gave on to a bright and sunny autumn day, and a very successful home festival. However, playing across the pitches on Hudsons Field, with their steep gradients, presented a new challenge.
 

The first game was an extremely impressive performance against Bournemouth. The boys turned up, remembered their training, and rucked for victory. Against the slope, they put in three tries entirely typical of their individual scorers in rapid succession; the first a long jinking run from Teflon Fin, the second a looping run from left to right by Josh Hole, and the third from Tom Wheeler powering over from a maul at short range. If Salisbury's passing was negligible, the rucking and mauling showed real skill and technique, and the training there was demonstrably bearing fruit. Come half time, when Bournemouth started to fight back, it was too late. Tom Wheeler scored another battering ram of a try to remind them who was boss, Salisbury's defence held up to the counter-attack. Bournemouth did manage to pull one back in the dying stages, but it was far too late to matter.

Won: 4-1.

In the second game, against an impressive Bradford-on-Avon, something slipped. Bradford were strong in all areas, and Salisbury's rucking lost its edge. Our backs got sucked in, and holes opened up. Our passing remained poor, with little looking for targets. Against a strong team, this all landed Salisbury in trouble. Bradford were able to break out from the scrappy rucking to use their three-quarters line and score on an undefended wing. Then they did it again to deadly effect minutes afterwards. Salisbury didn't seem able to cover the width. With the rucking not working for them either, and with Bradford's tackling exemplary, we were frankly outclassed. It was, however, some consolation that Bradford would go on to win the festival convincingly.

Lost: 0-2.

Next up: Andover. Salisbury had had a bit of a shock and it took them time to recover. The early stages were scrappy, the tackling patchy, the passing too late, the running too lateral. There was a hard battle in the scrum and ruck, with some big lads from Andover, but at half time Andover had not converted their slope advantage into any tries. With the change of ends, Salisbury took off. Aaron made a long run from fly half to score beside the corner flag. Shortly afterwards, Fin came close to doing the same. Soon afterwards, Tom Wheeler scored another burrowing, head-first try. Then some lovely close quarter running and team-work saw Tom working classily with Fin to put Xav over. Salisbury rounded off with a great long-range try by Fin, motoring down to score from the half-way line.

Won: 4-0.

Final group game: Wimborne. Salisbury had got into the swing of things again now. Uphill in the first half, they constantly attacked the enemy line. There was some useful breaks, by Xav in particular, and Fin made a great run which almost took him over. From the attacking rucks which followed, Charlie Smith was able to break away at short range and touch down. Salisbury began to open up the game, bringing the backs into play more, Xav and Fin kept penetrating, and Josh Hole was a little unlucky not to score again from a penalty before half time. After that, with the slope in our favour, the outcome was never in doubt. Some great running from Josh Eadsforth and Sam Adeney on the wing put Xav in range and, remembering to run straight, he broke through to touch down in the centre. Wimborne were under constant pressure, and succumbed to the constant hard rucking in their defensive zone, which eventually saw Fin go over for a short range clincher.

Won: 3-0.

Salisbury must have scored the most tries in their group, but Bradford didn't concede a defeat, so it was the Plate final for Salisbury, against Group B runners-up Sherborne. From the kick-off our rucking was sound and fluid, and the breaks kept coming. Fin spun through off a ruck to score the opener, yet Sherborne somehow managed to break out and score just before half time, leaving all to play for. But from then on Salisbury had the slope, and the confidence, and opened the game up. Fin made a nice slippery run down the hill, putting Tom Wheeler in range to power over yet again. The linking work between forward and backs was finally beginning to look convincing. Fin made another diagonal run in from the half-way line to score in the corner. Then Xav finished the day in style, storming over from a line-out. A thoroughly comprehensive victory, and quite some margin for a final.

Win: 4 - 1.

Overall, this was a very impressive day's work. When this Salisbury team play to their individual talents, they are good. When they work as a team, and remember their training, they become a try-scoring machine. If they can keep their nerve under pressure, keep up their best rucking work, and build on this with more consistent involvement of their backs, they could be set to have quite a season.

U10 B Squad

Luke Reid, Jonty Shaw, Tom Swanton, Daniel Jugg,

Taylor Oakley,Sam Wharmby, Tom Wild, Jordan Jones,

Bobby Spiers, Theo Cadier, Max Humphreys,

James Wade, Hugh Stott, Michael Netton, Tom Swanton

It was always going to be tough for the 10Bs playing in an A tournament, but everyone wants to play in their own festival, so the Bs would gain good experience and plenty of fun whatever the results.

However, Salisbury defied the odds and could so easily have been sitting pretty after two games with two wins. The fact that these ended up being two defeats probably explained the lesser performances in the final two games, but there were many positives to be taken from the first outing of the season for some and the first appearance ever for several others.

Match 1 - Salisbury 1 Trowbridge 2

Salisbury flew out of the blocks and Daniel immediately went close to opening the scoring. Sam progressed with a powerful drive but after a few minutes pressure, Trowbridge broke and raced down the slope to lead 0-1.
James put in a super run to almost level up immediately and then Jonty drove forward to keep the attacking momentum going. Taylor put in a good tackle to prevent another breakaway and from the breakdown, Sam nipped down the blindside to level the scores.
The second half began with a mass maul in which Tom S. and Tom W were particularly effective. Their good work allowed Michael to find a gap and after a good run was pulled up just short of the line. Salisbury spent the majority of the second half camped on the Trowbridge line but could not score.
Trowbridge won the ball back and rumbled up field slowly with another mass maul. With time running out, a draw seemed inevitable but Trowbridge launched one last effort and were forced out by Theo and Max a metre short. Somehow despite the half seemingly already 3 minutes over, Trowbridge were allowed another attack and they scored. The try brought the final whistle and an unfortunate defeat for Salisbury.

Match 2 - Salisbury 2 Sherborne 3

Again Salisbury came flying out of the traps and this time the burst of energy paid dividends. Tom S drove hard into the heart of the Sherborne defence and released Sam who fed Tyler who shot over a first Salisbury try. Sherborne countered strongly and despite some decent defence, they equalised at 1-1.
James went on a good dancing run, before Sherborne broke with pace and just when it seemed inevitable they would score, Daniel appeared from nowhere to put in a spectacular flying try-saving tackle. As the half ended all square, Sherborne dropped the ball with the line begging.
Salisbury started the second half asleep and Sherborne went straight over for 1-2. Sam drove back at the visitors and combined well with Jonty for Bobby to force his way over to level up at 2-2.
Sherborne finished the stronger and Jordan put in a good tackle to prevent a break. Daniel put in another big hit whilst Hugh was kept busy shackling the winger successfully. Salisbury looked they might manage a draw with Theo and Luke working hard in defence but they could not hold out and Sherborne scored to win it 3-2. Less cruel than the first match but still to emerge from two great efforts with no points was harsh on the boys.

Match 3 - Salisbury 0 North Dorset 4

A strange game this - all the boys wearing virtually the same colour; quite difficult to tell them apart, except for one boy who was twice as big as everyone else and scored 4 tries! The game followed a similar pattern throughout and so the details are shorter. Salisbury attack - don't pass, North Dorset give it to the big lad, don't tackle, big lad scores!
Highlights from the first half - James went a mazy run, Taylor and Tom S combined well in attack, Max had a powerful run. However, half-time Big Lad 3 Salisbury 0.
Hugh put in a super tackle to inspire a much better second half. Bobby put in a strong drive after the big lad had added a fourth. Jordan powered forward towards the end but the match ended in a 4-0 defeat.
It would not be fair to say the defeat was all down to the big lad. North Dorset played well all round and their rucking and pick up and drives were excellent.

Match 4 - Salisbury 1 Winchester 7

Salisbury started well with Taylor running effectively. James then continued the attack and found support from Michael who opened the scoring at 1-0. Luke put in a heavy tackle and with the two Toms working hard in the tight areas and Daniel again tackling his heart out, things were looking good. Winchester managed to force over a leveller at 1-1 but Salisbury finished the half in attack with Tom S and Sam running well.
The second half however was a bridge too far. The boys collapsed totally and the speedy Winchester players enjoyed sprinting down the slope rather too much. The tackling which had been good for the most part virtually stopped and six tries were scored in the space of six minutes!

It was a sad way for a day with so many positives to end but Salisbury Bs should take heart from some fine performances. A bit of fine tuning and they'll be ready for the next challenge. Well done boys!