Shelford produced an all round outstanding team performance to dispatch the previously unbeaten visitors - to be fair to Peterborough, their scrummage pushed Shelford to the limit, however, the better team won the day. The team game was personified by joint man of the match winners, Cameron Fay and Ben Meggitt - the former taking the ball on time and time again despite waves of an orc like defence coming flat and hard, the latter seemingly disappearing in the midst of a Borough maul, but reappearing with the ball - magnificent. Returning Eastern Counties players Ben Cooper and Jack Lines played a huge part too, Cooper setting up the final score with a burst blind and a lovely floated pass to Lines who beat two men to score under the posts. The first score came from George Newnham who, from the melee of a 5m scrum twisted and turned like a banshee to touch down. Shelford's second came from Rory Stone who took the ball after a great dummy from Rob Morris, only to repeat the feat and dummy the defence to go under the posts. Shelford's best try came after Ben Porch took one off the top of a Borough line out, the backs slick hands shipped the ball out to Lines who ghosted into the corner - converted well by Ben Wierny who also converted two of the other tries.

Under 15’s

Peterborough 17 Shelford 0

The Shelford Under 15’s were comprehensively beaten against a very competitive Peterborough side. Shelford started their first match of the New Year expecting to outplay Peterborough who they had beaten in the semi-finals of the County Cup earlier on in the season. Shelford opened the game confidently with their pack appearing to be a good match against the larger Peterborough forwards. Shelford’s best chance of the first half was when Sam Till broke through the home pack with a loose ball which he kicked into the Peterborough 22.Unfortunately the ball fell awkwardly and the home side was able to recover their position. Peterborough then went into the ascendancy with one of their backs running through most of the Shelford line who were woeful in their attempts to tackle. The try was scored in front of the posts and subsequently converted, 7-0. Rather than waking up the away team, the opposite seemed to happen. The passing was particularly poor with knock ons occurring frequently as well as wild throws into space. It was as if the team had never played together. It was inevitable that Peterborough would score again which they duly did shortly before half time. The conversion was missed. After the break little seemed to change. Shelford’s mistakes continued with forward passes being added to the catalogue of errors. They were unlucky to concede a third try when on a scrum near the Shelford line, the ball seemed to come straight out with the Peterborough scrum half running around the back of the pack and going over the line unchallenged. This gave the home side a 17-0 advantage which Shelford looked incapable of clawing back. The game then descended into a very disjointed affair with neither side able to keep the ball in the scrum with the result that every scrum needed to be reset. The home side became very unhappy with some of the penalties being given against them resulting in considerable dissent and the dismissal of two of their players. Even with a two man advantage Shelford could still not score. It was a disappointing performance ending a run of seven consecutive victories.

Under 14’s

Shelford 7 Peterborough 10

After the Christmas & New Year festivities it was time for the boys to get back into the second half of the season, and a time when the boys usually start to perform more as a team after the introduction of a number of new faces at the start of the season. After beating Peterborough with ease at the County Cup earlier in the season, this was a fixture that had Shelford performed anywhere near their top form, should have won at a canter. This was not to be, and we got sucked into the kind of game that was perfect for Peterborough ’s forward orientated type of play. The game started really well for Shelford, as we imposed our style of quick-ruck ball rugby with a high tempo for the first 10-15 minutes of the game. This possession and territory only materialised one try scored by captain Sam Porter & converted by Lewis Cracknell. From the time we had in the opposition’s half in that first quarter of the game, more points should have been scored, but a failure to use the space out wide kept the ball close to the contact areas and made it easier for Peterborough to defend against. As the game became more of a war of attrition between the two packs, Peterborough ’s forwards began to dominate with their rolling mauls as well as taking a number of scrums against the head. A breakaway try by ‘boro left the half-time score in favour of Shelford at 7-5.The second half continued in the same vein, with ‘boro dominating Shelford up front, and left us living off scraps. Our failure to secure our own ball at the rucks also didn’t help our lack of possession, and more conviction in clearing-out at these situations would have meant quicker & cleaner ball for more ‘pick & drives’ by the forwards or for the backs to have a go out wide. Shelford’s defence though was holding up quite well against a constant stream of ‘boro possession, and a loose ball was run back by the ‘boro winger to score in the corner for them to take the lead at 10-7. Shelford did have a chance to win it at the death as we finally put a backs move together that threatened to open up the ‘boro defence, but a final pass went astray and the game ended disappointingly 10-7 in favour of Peterborough. All in all it was a disappointing performance after many recent improved ones, where lots of facets of the game resulted in our downfall, particularly at the rucks which is usually one of our strengths, and also our backs being too flat when taking the ball on, which meant that ball generally got no further than inside or outside centre before being closed down. These areas can be easily put right, and must be dealt with this Thursday before a tough fixture awaits us at Stamford .

Under 13’s

Peterborough 24 Shelford 54

Shelford U13’s maintained their winning run with a 54-24 away win over a plucky Peterborough side. The match was played over three 20 minute periods to give both teams a chance to use all the players. Captain for the day, No.8 Callum Miller ran in a try in each period from 5, 25 and 55 metres, with his long range try one any back would have been proud off. Shelford started strongly and only let the home team into their 22 on one occasion in the first period to build a 24-0 lead. George Rutherford scored a lovely individual effort from fly half and William Jones and Freddy Eggleton scored. The Christmas spirit was still in evidence in the next period as Shelford waved the P’boro boys through for 3 tries of their own with only the one from Miller in reply. Normal service was resumed in last period as Daniel Elbro scored a memorable first try of his Shelford career taking the ball from the back of the maul, beating two defenders and racing to score under he posts from 20 metres out. Jones notched up his hat-trick with two more tries, one completely of his own making as he tackled his opposite number and ripped the ball from him, before running unopposed to the line. Hector Finch used his strength to force his way over from 5 metres. In a difficult day for the kickers, Kit Goodfellow was successful with two conversions.