Salisbury under 12s

New Milton Festival

Sunday 2nd October 2011

Match 1 - Salisbury 1 v New Milton 0

A good start for Salisbury playing deep in the opposition half. Salisbury could have got a try early on but despite taking up excellent positions the ball wasn't moved wide as quickly as it could have been. Much of the first half was the same with passing improving and Salisbury closing on the line but unable to execute the final pass when it mattered.

The second half started with some good passing from Harry Mould, Ben Richards and Harry Burke. New Milton defended well and it looked like a draw was on the cards until Charlie (captain) used his strength to punch through on the final move of the game.

Match 2 - Salisbury 0 v Trojans 1

A real battle in the first half - a very physical game with players getting knocks on both sides. Handling errors led to lots of scrumming which was heavy going on such a hot day.

Salisbury were up against it in the second half and defended well but eventually conceded a try to Trojans who were the slightly better side on the day.

Match 3 - Salisbury 4 v Ringwood 0

A poor opening start by Salisbury. The team looked half asleep for the first minute or two but then all of a sudden woke up. Daniel Harris got over the line with the ball but couldn't ground it.

Tom McFarland opened the scoring by catching the opposition out with a direct run when they were all expecting the ball to go out wide. After that Salisbury came alive and started playing more direct rugby with Harry Mould taking the ball at pace and touching down seconds before the half time whistle.

In the second half Salisbury picked up from where they left off with really good passing and movement for Harry Burke to take the ball over. Harry Mould again showed a burst of pace and took a good line to carry the ball over for the final try.

Match 4 - Salisbury 4 v Eastleigh 0

A much better start in this game with Jacob powering forward in the first minute and creating holes which Harry B exploited for the first try. The second try came a minute later with Tom McFarland going round the side of the scrum.

The third try came from Jacob who collected the ball and decided to step on the gas. The Eastleigh defence decided to step out of the way and Jacob touched down with a bit of a swagger. He got a ticking off from the ref for that but I don't think Maya was too bothered.

In the second half another try came from Harry B as a result of excellent passing from the backs.

Match 5 - Salisbury 0 v Bournemouth 1

A well fought game that was decided by a single try from Bournemouth, one of their players picking the ball up from a scrum deep in their own half and showing great pace to outrun the Salisbury defence.

It was a shame that Salisbury couldn't maintain the momentum they had from the previous two games. The long delay prior to the Bournemouth game probably didn’t help but none the less, this was a promising start to the season.