Colts

Newmarket 5 Shelford 52

Shelford 63 Harlow 0

Shelford recorded an emphatic victory away at Harlow , and in the process played some really attacking attractive rugby scoring a total of 11 tries. After a hard frost, the pitch thawed out to give near perfect playing conditions for the second weekend running, and Shelford did not disappoint. With the forwards looking evenly matched in the set pieces, Shelford got to grips with their opponents by dominating the contact areas with quick recycled ball. Joe Sherrington-Scales made great use of the service he received at fly half to put the backs away in space on a number of occasions, as they were able keep their depth (for a change!!) and attack the opposition at pace. The first three tries scored by Shelford were all from good backs moves, with Alex Flynn, Ben Anderson & Toby Poirier all going over for scores, plus one conversion by Joe giving Shelford the early cushion of a 17-0 lead. A charge-through in midfield by Connor Denton was then followed by him gathering his own kick ahead to score under the posts, converted by Joe, 24-0. At this stage Harlow were still being competitive up-front, with the odd break from midfield being met with stout defence, notably Ben Anderson and Dan Burling who put in one of his speciality ‘crunchers’ when he was the last line of defence. Two further tries, one each for Toby Poirier & Connor Denton saw Shelford with a healthy 34-0 half-time lead. With a number of half-time substitutions being made, it took a little time for Shelford to get back into their stride, but with Harlow mindful of the pace that was coming at them through the backs, continued to ‘back-off’ and not put enough pressure on the Shelford players when we were in attack. Sam Porter was to score first in the second half, followed by a second half hat-trick by Alex Flynn (one converted by Lewis), one of which was reminiscent of our play at the end of last season when the ball was kept alive away from contact for Alex to pop up on the wing to score a fine team try. When we play rugby like this, it is very hard to defend against and also very exciting to watch. Sam Perry scored the final try of the game, barrelling through from halfway, converted by Lewis to leave the final score 63-0 in Shelford’s favour.One very pleasing aspect about today was the ‘0’ against, which is a sign of our strengthening defence over the last couple of weeks. Another was the platform set by the forwards which enabled the rest of the team to ‘go forward’ with confidence. A special mention must go to both Harry O’Callaghan and Michael Russum who were both outstanding today in the loose. It was great to see two of the newer members of the squad really step-up their performances to match the likes of our more ‘seasoned’ squad members.