| Youth Reports - 10/02/08 |
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| Written by Andrew Baron | |
| Sunday, 10 February 2008 | |
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Under 16's Shelford 0 Biggleswade 17 For the second week running, poor decision making, silly mistakes and a lack of cohesion condemned Shelford to their 2nd defeat in a fortnight. Biggleswade scored from an early penalty, but Shelford's defence held firm, suggesting better things to come in the second half. It was not to be as the visitors scored very quickly after the restart and despite Biggleswade being down to 14 after a sin binning for numerous infringements, Shelford could not turn possession and position into points. Man of the Match Jonathan Swain showed real passion, good hands and tenacious defence, but it was not enough to prevent Biggleswade scoring a break away try in the last few minutes. Under 14’s Shelford 10 Biggleswade 14 A depleted Shelford side were extremely unlucky to lose a tight encounter against Biggleswade today. With up to ten regulars either missing through holidays or injury, the remaining squad members put up an extremely spirited performance against an ill-disciplined Biggleswade, where only one of two disallowed tries would have made the difference. Biggy took the lead after a cruel bounce, however, Shelford began then to kick for position, winning in the ensuing contact areas - Biggy started to infringe at the breakdowns, and from one of these penalties close to the Biggy line, quick thinking by Toby Poirier darted over the line, converted by Lewis, 7-7 at half-time. Shelford continued to press forward in the 2nd period, and only stout defence by Biggy kept the scores level. The forwards continued where they’d left off, and continued to apply pressure with some aggressive tackling & rucking against much bigger opponents. The backs also started to look a lot sharper, with Dan Burling joining the line from full-back on a number of occasions, and towards the end of the game their confidence was beginning to grow through some great off-loading out of the tackle, and good inter-play between backs & forwards. Shelford were very unlucky at that stage to have had two ‘tries’ disallowed. As time ticked away, Shelford took the lead through a Lewis Cracknell penalty 10-7, but Biggy responded from a ruck close to our line, which was converted to make the score 14-10. Shelford took the game back to Biggy for one final effort, but time was ultimately against them, and the game ended in Biggy’s favour 14-10. Under 13’s Biggleswade 5 Shelford 27 Shelford U13’s had an unusually small squad of only 16 players available for the potentially tricky fixture away to Biggleswade. A number of players had to learn how to play in new positions with two of our backs playing in the back row! Biggy started the match more brightly with some robust rucking as they went through the phases. The Shelford defence stood firm though and the attacks were restricted to being more lateral than forward penetrating. As Shelford stepped up the pressure they started to force Biggy back and mid way through the half the ball was spun out wide to winger Benji Beer who neatly side stepped his opposite number and raced home from just inside the 10 metre line to score his first try for the club. Shelford were still not firing on all cylinders, especially upfront and were unable to add to this lead before the break. Biggy brought the game level early in the second half as the Shelford defence failed to take responsibility from a short penalty and the Biggy no.8 went over for the try. This was the wake up call for the team (or was it me shouting at them!) as the boys never looked back from that moment. Our new back row was like the Welsh team with Jones (Ollie) and Jones (William). Both switched round playing No.8 and made some penetrating runs after picking up from the base of the scrum. Freddie Eggleton scored a wonderful effort as he maintained his balance and composure to avoid going into touch despite the attention of a number of defenders. Some quick thinking led to two more tries as Jamie Huffer took quick tap penalties and fed Ollie Jones and shortly after George Knowles to extend the lead. The result was put beyond any doubt as a sweeping move saw William Jones break the gain line and fed Kit “Jones“ Goodfellow (honouree Welsh back row player for the day) before he stood up in the tackle and passed to Benji Beer who scored his second and the teams fifth try of the game to secure an impressive 27-5 win. Under 12’s Shelford 31 Newmarket 0 Shelford under 12’s visited Newmarket for two games against the home squad. Shelford won the opening game 24-0 with all the point coming in the first half of the game tries from Stephen Douglas, George Smith, Daniel Lee and Liam Calvey with conversions coming from Douglas (2). It would take until well into the second game for Shelford to score the only try of the game coming from Smith converted by Will Lander to end the game 7-0 to Shelford. Under 9’s Shelford 20 Newmarket 0 Tom Cropper 3, Garrett Shannon 1. Against a larger Newmarket side Shelford won thanks to an all round display from Tom Cropper demonstrating strength and courage in the tackle and good running lines to get a hat trick of tries. Garrett Shannon also scored a great try by breaking through centre of a ruck and sprinting to the line. Shelford 0 West Norfolk 5 A strong West Norfolk side beat Shelford despite a strong defensive performance from Shelford that included committed tackling from Ollie Parkes, Tom Short and Stan Clark. West Norfolk tackled and rucked with organised power and despite their best efforts Shelford could not break though. Shelford 20 Newmarket 0 Tom Cropper 2, Stan Clark and Garrett Shannon 1 try each. Another win featuring better rucking from Shelford and powerful runs from Xan and Tom Short enabling tries for Tom Stan and Garrett. There was also strong defence form Connor and Eric that ensured Newmarket did not score. Shelford 0 West Norfolk 15 Having beaten Newmarket easily, West Norfolk again demonstrated all round strength in defence and good running lines to beat Shelford. Tom Cropper, Ryan and Tom Short put in some strong tackles but the best side won. For his all round displays in all four games Tom Cropper was voted man of the match. Under 8’s Shelford 30 West Norfolk 25 This was a fast moving game with both sides splitting the defences with pace. There was some excellent running by both the senior players and the developing players. Although the tag count fell away in this game the passing and movement with the ball was excellent. This was a robust game with a lot of bumping and barging and our boys held their own.Tries: Daniel Arbide 1; Henry Breeze 1; Jamie Coates 1; Will Stepney 1; Hayden McKenzie 2.Tags Once again led by Danie with 4 and most others with 2. Shelford Senior Squad 15 Newmarket 5 This turned out to be a tougher game than we had envisaged. Newmarket have really developed a useful squad having beaten Bury St Edmunds the week before. The try count was low due to excellent tagging and support play by both sides.Tries: Daniel Arbide 1; Hayden McKenzie 1; Harry Simpson 1.The tag count improved in this game with Luke Burnham leading the count with 9; Daniel Arbide 8; Angus Thomson 7. There is still an unwillingness to pass the ball but something for us to work on in the future. Shelford Development Squad 5 West Norfolk 25 This was a game of two halves. We had hoped that WN would field their developing players for this game. Needless to say they chose to field their strongest side. For our young players to hold their own and only be down 2 tries to 1 at half time was excellent ( given most of the WN team will have played the game for 3 years ). The sheer pace of the strike runners was the deciding factor in this game. Try: Aiden Thomas - His effort in both games played was excellent.The tag count was led by Tom with 5 and Aiden with 4.Also worth commenting that 3 of our developing team are new to the game yet ran their hearts out along with the rest of the boys so well done. For overall effort both in defence and attack Daniel Arbide was once again outstanding and for the first time ever he wins 'back to back' player of the day award. Under 7’s Shelford 55 West Norfolk 45 Shelford under 7’s turned up at Newmarket on Sunday with a strong squad of around 20 players. On a wonderful spring like day we took on West Norfolk (as Newmarket do not have an under 7’s) in a very competitive and exciting series on matches. With excellent performances from all those who played Shelford just edged out the Norfolk side, scoring one more try in the last game. This was an excellent effort by all as the West Norfolk team where a very big side who ran well and were determined to score at every attempt. The best try of the day was finished off by Alex but went through 5 to 6 passes before he skilfully put the ball down in the right hand corner. The defence deserve a mention with some very good last ditch try line tackles. |
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