Colts

Ipswich 0 - 27 Shelford

Once again with a gale blowing across the pitch Shelford took on Ipswich in their EC cup game. and with both sides making errors early on as they tried to get to grips with the conditions. This Shelford did after 15mins with Matt Caller catching a high ball and running it straight back at Ipswich and with a fine solo effort broke through the Ipswich defence to score in the high winds, the conversion was missed. 5 minutes later Michael Houghton finished off a fine backs move to score in the corner. just before the interval, Caller got his brace with a fine pick and drive from the forwards to put the backs in position to finish off which Caller did with aplomb, in a position to give Tom McGinty a chance with the conversion which he coolly slotted home. Just after the restart, Toby Mepham scored with a good worked try from all the team with some good off loading in the tackle. Then a fine line break from Ben Seymour saw him run 60 yards to score in the corner. For the last 10mins Ipswich came to life and really took the game to Shelford and deserved something for their efforts but some fine defending saw them kept out. 

Eastern Counties Cup Final

Under 17’s

Shelford 3 North Walsham 17

Shelford fell at the final hurdle to a large North Walsham side. Having won the toss, Shelford chose to play with the wind and slope, but a poor start saw them concede 12 points in as many minutes. A tactical change in the front row saw Shelford bolster up their scrummage and with the ability to secure better scrum ball, were able to get slowly into the game. Shelford registered their points with a Will Barnes penalty and went into half time 12-3 down. A difficult second half loomed with Shelford playing against the elements but they started strongly, mounting all the early pressure. However they were unable to breach the Walsham defence, and when Walsham broke away to score the only try of the half, all looked lost, particularly when Shelford lost no8 James Summerscales to the sin bin. However Shelford battled away, still refusing to accept defeat and played some of their best rugby when down to 14 men. Try as they might though, Walsham held Shelford out for victory.

Under 16's

Shelford 12 Ampthill 20

Shelford lost their way against a strong Ampthill side - losing both discipline and structure against a side that made good decisions when they had the ball - scrappy ball, knock ons, poor passes and numerous infringements, several of which were compounded by dissent, saw Shelford struggle. On the bright side, man of the match George Newnham stood out as did Ben Porch, both of whom, along with Ian Morrison made the hosts line out more solid than of late. Alasdair Paterson scored after Shelford worked more than 2 phases of possession, with Rory Stone the recipient of a great steal by Paterson, who offloaded to Newnham who then beat two tacklers to leave Stone clear to kick and chase, well converted by Ben Wierny - 12-10 to a more organised Shelford at half time. It was the visitors though, who deservedly scored twice in the second half against an increasingly ragged Shelford, who failed to use the wind to their advantage, Ampthill running out 20-12 winners. 

Under 15's

Shelford 70 St Ives 0

At last a win in 2008. After a slow start we found our rhythm once again and the tries came thick & fast. The key was teamwork and continuity. The rucking in the second-half was much sharper, producing quick ball which the backs used superbly. Another improvement was the re-starts, of which St Ives had to do plenty, but with Daniel playing his first full game, again and again he called for, caught, and set up the maul, providing solid ball. In both halves, the back-rows were ubiquitous (everywhere) and provided the vital links between forwards & backs. Great to see Oli Newnham back in form scoring a scorching try under the posts. He showed the way to our new outside centre Habana who shimmied, shaked, dummied and danced his way over the line. We will no doubt be hearing about that one for a long time.Scorers were:- Harry Norman 3 tries, Alex Poirier 2 tries and 1 conversion, Ollie Martin 2 tries and 1 conversion, Elliot Mepham 1 try and 3 conversions, Felix Guyer, Sam Till, Ollie Newnham and Ben Cullen 1 try each. 

Under 14’s

Shelford 5 Newmarket 43

Shelford started quite brightly with the elements at their backs, and were in Newmarket territory for the majority of the first half. Their failure to play smart rugby at crucial moments meant that their possession and territory went to waste. Shelford were guilty of trying to play Newmarket at their own game of mauling, and were held up in promising positions on at least 4 occasions. When the ball did go wide, a lack of depth meant there was very little pace in the moves, and Newmarket were able to deal with this with ease. Newmarket ’s confidence started to grow, and they started to attack Shelford from deep, and their two pacy backs were given too much space to run into. In the second half things went from bad to worse, with Shelford playing with very little conviction. Their continuing failure to secure their own ball meant that Newmarket had a host of possession to continue to attack us through their main two threats at centre & right wing. 4 further Newmarket tries were scored, and you had to be honest to say that 43-0 was probably a fair reflection on the way the two teams were performing at that stage. To make matters worse, Connor Denton was sin-binned which made our task even more difficult, but his return late in the game did finally mean that we would get on the score sheet. Injuries to Lachlan Finlayson & Ben Anderson also marred a bad day. 

Under 13’s

Newmarket 12 Shelford 15

Shelford started brightly on a cold day with a biting northerly wind. The rucking practice of recent weeks seemed to have paid off as phase after phase of good Shelford possession resulted in a try for winger Will Jones after the ball had been through the team's hands and down the three quarter line in classic fashion. The second Shelford try was similar in that many phases of play were put together with good retention and excellent use of impact runners resulted in Johnnie Martin feeding fly half Nick Russell who needed no encouragement to exploit the spaces caused by the patient build up play and glided his way through the Newmarket defence to touch down. The Newmarket team were beginning to wake up and did not allow their heads to drop. Their forwards were finding their rhythm and found some aggression in their play that began to tell. Their bigger pack punched some holes in the Shelford defence and after a good string of phases scored from the back of a ruck. Shelford should have turned around a few more points to the good but James Gibson was unlucky not to gather a clever cross kick from Nick Russell and Will Jones could have had his second try but was just beaten to the ball following his chip and chase.The turnaround was significant because Newmarket made good use of the wind but it was Shelford who scored first through Freddie Eggleton finishing well to go over in the corner from some broken play. Newmarket seemed to get stronger and stronger with their forwards proving harder and harder to deal with. They eventually broke the Shelford line to score after shipping a ball wide from another ruck and went over close to the posts. After a successful conversion the score stod at 15-12 for the last 10 minutes but Shelford bravely hung on after try saving tackles from both George Rutherford, who was excellent all match and Freddie Eggleton.  

Under 12’s

St Neots 14 Shelford 61

Game 1:- A cold wind straight from the Urals whistled across the broad flat plains of St Neots. The temperature was about minus 20. James Tilbury's dad was wearing so many clothes that he had lost the ability to bend any of his limbs or turn his neck to follow the play. He resembled a sort of semi defrosted Michelin Man. St Neots reckoned they had an A team and a B team so wanted us to pick similar teams . This rather goes against the team's philosophy, which is that the result doesn't matter as long as somebody cracks a fart while doing a star jump.
However after a tense selection meeting the A team was duly selected. St Neots had their usual big pack and some pacy backs with good hands. The first half was close as we played into the Siberian wind. It was once again not a day for quick handling and spreading the ball wide. However the Shelford pack were more than a match for their opponents. The mobility of the back three of Cam McMeikan Ben Bishop and Harry Hitchcock meant that we were always first to the breakdown. The front row of Liam Calvey, Henry Taylor and Nick Cox constantly pushed St Neots off the ball.
The transformation of Liam Calvey from boy who got out of breath taking his tracksuit off into seriously awesome rugby player is now nearly complete. Liam bundled over from a 5metre penalty to give Shelford a narrow lead. Rory Hutchinson added the conversion 7-0 at half time.
In the second half with the wind Shelford were irresistible. A mazy run by Hutchinson increased the score. Sam Jones at fly half flopped over from 1 meter as scrum half Ollie Walker made an opening for him. Liam bullied the Saints pack out of the way to grab another try and Cam ran length of the pitch to score in the corner. Hutchinson kicked three more conversions and it ended 33-0. An excellent performance as we gave a good St Neots team a really tough time.

Game 2:- It would be a tough challenge as St Neots B looked strangely familiar - they were the same team as St Neots A. They quickly took the lead and started looking confident. But our inexperienced pack held their own and Shelford worked full back Will Lander over for a close range try. 7-7 at half time. Some poor tackling allowed Saints a try early in the second half. Then rather like England at Twickenham when the game was theirs for the taking they took their foot off the gas. George Smith scored an excellent try on the wing from a brilliant pass by George James. Connor Marsh smashed through the Saints forwards like an angry rhino to grab another try. Shelford had their noses in front!
Then as time was running out our pack won some quick ball. It was spun to Jack Miers. Jack ran directly at his opposite number, waited until the hapless defender was fully committed and then delivered a pass of such exquisite beauty into the hands of replacement winger Sam Jones that the pass will be spoken of with awe and wonder for as long as the game of rugby lives in the hearts of the fortunate few that were there to witness it. Sam galloped for the corner like a dreadlocked South Sea Islander. No-one was going to stop him. Will Lander completed a perfect set of 4 conversions and the final whistle went. 28-14 to Shelford and a really excellent performance. 

Under 10’s

St Neots 45 Shelford 30

Game 1  Lost - St.Neots 25 -15 ShelfordScorers - Ollie Barnes, Ollie Perry, Harriet Walker 1 try eachGame 2  Lost St.Neots 20 -15 ShelfordScorers:  Ollie Barnes = 2 tries, George Franklin = 1 tryShelford played two matches against a strong St.Neots team. It was an extremely cold,blustery February morning and Shelford although played well lost their two matches. Shelford played good rugby but could not beat  stronger apposition. Luca Stephenson played exceptionally well for Shelford, he is improving rapidly as a player for Shelford. 

Under 9’s

Game 1: Shelford 20 – 0 St Neots

Shelford try scorers: Kieran Hatter 3 and Tom Whitehead 1

This was our first game for 2 months but we soon managed to blow the cobwebs away with a good win. Tom Whitehead scored our first try following a long period of Shelford pressure. Our next try came from the start of the second half when Kieran Hatter made a winding run to break through the St Neots defensive. Our third and fourth both came from Kieran again with long twisting runs from deep which left the opposition in his wake, impressive from the sideline however frustrating for our coach who was screaming pass the ball.   

Game 2: Shelford 25 – 10 St Neots

Shelford try scorers: Stan Clarke 2, Erik Bell 1, Tom Shortt 1 and Ben Frisk 1

We had enough to field two teams and a completely different Shelford team put 5 tries past St Neots. It was great to see Erik Bell get his first try for the club following good pressure from Shelford. Our second came from Tom Shortt and third from Ben Frisk following periods of Shelford pressure. Stan Clarke scored our fourth and fifth tries after good runs from deep. A good team performance, with an encouraging start from Jack Tribbeck who made is debut for the club.

Game 3: Shelford 15 – 0 St Neots

Shelford try scorers: Ryan Lees 2 and Miles Brown 1

In our last game we mixed up the teams to give everyone a final run out. The first try was set up by Tom Whitehead who could have scored himself but passed to Miles Brown who scored. This earned Tom Man of the Match. Our second and third tries came from Ryan Lees. For Ryan’s first he broke from deep at speed to make it over the try line. Ryan’s third was a team effort with a great run by Erik Bell who passed off to Ben Frisk who draw the tackle to pass off to Ryan to score.  

Under 8’s

Shelford 55 St Neots 20

The try count was led by 4 boys - Luke Burnham 2; Jamie Coates 2; Hayden McKenzie 2; Harry Simpson 2; Angus Thomson 1; Henry Breeze 1; Aiden Thomas 1. ( Angus and Henry were unlucky not to score second tries). The powerful running in attack and linking up with each other was exceptional not only from the boys who scored tries but also those in support Daniel Arbide; Will Stepney; Josh Butler and the three new players to the squad Daniel, Tom and Henry. Today was probably the strongest defensive play of the year with St Neots unable to counter attack, despite their excellent passing skills due to our strong attacking play. The tag count was led by Daniel Arbide with 43 tags ( must be a record for two games ); Luke Burnham followed with a tag count of 18 and Henry with 16. The man of the match has to be Daniel Arbide whose stamina in attack created so many opportunities for other attacking runners to score tries.Once again congratulations to the boys, an excellent performance in cold conditions by both the seasoned players and those new to the side.