Under 16's

Shelford 5 Welwyn 12
 
Shelford were extremely unlucky to fall the wrong side of the result today after playing the majority of ‘rugby’ in the game. Welwyn’s tactical ploy of a mixture of ‘pick & drive’ and mauling was effective but not pretty and is the second time this season out of three losses that this has been the case, and a lesson for us to learn about how to deal with different styles of opponents.
 
Another rash of injuries has also dealt us another blow leading into the sharp end of the season as two groin injuries to hooker Cormac Starling and full back Nick Webb (who was outstanding in the first half) as well as a possible nose break & cheek fracture to the hard working Nathan Taylor as blindside flanker. Adding these into other injuries in recent weeks is now really testing the Shelford squad’s strength in depth.
 
Shelford started well and had the majority of possession in the first half. We were soon running the ball in space, but good defence by Welwyn kept our backs in check. A number of superb steals by Sam Perry in the line outs meant we kept good pressure on the Welwyn defence, but Shelford were struggling to break through this solid defence and their frustration started to get the better of them as a number of dubious decisions started to go against them too. Welwyn kicked most of their possession away in the first period, which gave Nick Webb a number of great runs from deep which almost broke our duck, but the final pass on a number of occasions didn’t quite go to hand. After all of Shelford’s endeavours the first half period ended frustratingly at 0-0.
 
With injuries abound, Shelford re-jigged their 2nd half XV and this seemed to give Welwyn the upper hand in this early period. Welwyn had now decided to go ‘route one’ and put pressure on Shelford through an aggressive period of ‘pick & drive’ and rolling mauls. Shelford’s defence initially stood up well, but the pressure finally told as they rumbled over from just a few metres out for a 5-0 Welwyn lead. Shelford however were still looking extremely dangerous on the break and counter-attacked very well, but were guilty on occasions of closing their own team-mates space down with too much drifting in attack. When the line was straightened from quick ruck ball, this found Lewis Green on hand on the wing to convert the opportunity that we’d been threatening to do on a number of occasions as Shelford drew level at 5-5 with only a few minutes remaining.
 
Welwyn responded with a number of powerful forward drives up-field, which lead to the winning ‘try’ which looked to be short of the try-line. However, the try was given and converted for a 12-5 Welwyn lead. With 2-3 minutes remaining Shelford responded positively to this set back and a couple of powerful bursts from centres James Clare & Alex Flynn set up good field position. Alex Flynn then burst through at pace yet again to score what looked a perfectly good try, which with a kick in front of the posts would have levelled the scores. The ball was deemed ‘held-up’ and Shelford had a 5 metre attacking scrum with seconds remaining. The ball went through hands to winger Toby Poirier, but he was forced into touch and saw the end of the game and jubilant scenes from the Welwyn players.
 
Shelford can feel hard done by with this result, but we can always learn from defeat and we know the boys have the character to respond positively. The key to this defeat wasn’t necessarily the un-awarded try or getting the wrong end of some tough refereeing calls but the amount of good possession we failed to convert into scores in the first period, which would have put us out of sight by half time.
 
Squad: Sam Perry (Captain), Lachlan Finlayson, Cormac Starling, Dan Smith, Michael Schumann-Pratt, Harry O’Callaghan, Alasdair Kerslake, Iowan Thomas-Mathieson, Ben Foster, Louis Rawlings, Nathan Taylor, Jack McDaid, Ben Pirzad, George Teeboon, Alex Long, Louis Boulter, Lewis Cracknell, James Clare, Alex Flynn, Lewis Green, Toby Poirier, Nick Webb, Dan Burling.