Under 17’s - Eastern Counties Cup Final

Colchester 27 Shelford 16 

Shelford's arduous and adventurous EC Cup journey fell at the last hurdle against a combative Colchester outfit whose better ball retention and powerful rucking allied to sound defence saw them run out deserved winners. Shelford started in the ascendency as they benefitted from the strong breeze at their backs, with the boot of Lewis Cracknell putting them in numerous good attacking field positions. However, they failed to capitalise on this period of pressure and only had a penalty from Cracknell in front of the posts to show for their efforts. Having gone in front, they then squandered a number of gilt-edged opportunities but a lack of composure during this key part of the game would eventually come back to haunt them in the end. Colchester found themselves a man down after their flanker took full back Lewis Green out in the air. With a man advantage, Shelford finally finished off a fine phase of play when centre Alex Flynn put the flying Lewis Green into space for the first try of the game, 8-0. Colchester responded well after they were back to their full complement of players, and punched holes in the Shelford defence with a series of drives upfield.  Scrum half George Teeboon (who was having a fantastic game) was sin-binned, and this seemed to turn the tide of the game. Colchester's pressure was finally put on the board with a converted score 8-7, and Shelford turned round to face the elements with a miserly one point advantage. 

Colchester started the second half with the man advantage and with the impetus of their late first half score continued to pressurise the Shelford defence. A slick backs move by Colchester saw them gain the lead, which was well converted from the touchline, 14-7. Colchester continued to put pressure on the Shelford defence, and a penalty in front of the posts was converted to extend their lead to 17-7 With the return of scrum-half Teeboon, Shelford responded by moving threateningly upfield and winger Dan Burling was put away for a fine score to reduce the arrears to 17-13. A further Colchester sin-binning for again taking out the airborne Lewis Green kept Shelford going forward, and further Shelford pressure saw a penalty slotted by Cracknell to converge the scores at 17-16. The sin-binning of Connor Denton stopped the Shelford revival in it's tracks, as good tight driving by Colchester resulted in a score to put daylight between the two sides at 22-16. Colchester then put the game beyond doubt with a try given after Shelford thought the ball had been knocked forward. The knock-on was not given and Shelford found themselves 27-16 down with 5 minutes to go. Shelford pressurised the Colchester defence right up until the final whistle, but failed to get the score they were pushing for.

Unlike the loss against North Walsham in the pool stages where we were able to make amends with a semi-final win, there is no going back after losing the final Without playing anywhere near their true potential, Shelford were still a tough nut to crack and they can be mightily proud of their fine cup run, but well played to Colchester who ran out deserved winners. A great final played between two talented and evenly matched teams. 

Saffron Walden 0 Shelford 19

Shelford Under 16's reached the county cup final on Sunday with a hard fought 19-0 victory over a stubborn Saffron Walden side on a windy and cold morning at Henham. The opening exchanges set the toll for the rest of the game, namely a dour forward scrap on a heavy pitch with the backs also finding it difficult to gain any fast momentum due to the sticky conditions. After the initial sparring Shelford took the lead in the 12th minute when the forwards turned over possession  halfway inside the Saffron Walden half, scrum half Will Glydon went up the narrower left hand channel and with some quick passing between him and James Gibson the ball reached winger Tom Johnston in a bit of space and he outran the Walden cover to score an excellent try which was unconverted. Shelford continued to dominate territory for the rest of the half with the odd moment of danger from some Walden counter offensives. James Gibson went very close to scoring from his kick ahead in the 27th minute when a bad bounce foiled him as he went to touch down underneath the posts but Shelford added to their lead on the stroke of half time when a forward drive with Jacob Milner and Hector Finch to the fore resulted in Jack Owen crashing over for a try which was converted by James Gibson to make the half time score 12-0 to Shelford.

The second half was much more of a midfield struggle with neither side really in the ascendancy although Shelford looked the more likely to score and a couple of chances went begging through missed passes  particularly when on 25 minutes when a break by the forwards led by Michael Dunnett, Jack Owen and Hector Finch had the backs with a 3 on 1 overlap but on the crucial pass the ball was spilled and the chance went begging. It was in the last minute when Shelford made the game safe when following a Walden penalty Shelford won the ruck ball and James Gibson threw a marvellous dummy pass which opened up the Walden defence and he sprinted 30 metres and went in underneath the posts. Fittingly he converted his own try to make the final score 19-0 to Shelford.

Credit to Saffron Walden who gave a great account of themselves but overall Shelford deserved the win and now go on to face Cambridge in the final.  

Under 15’s

Cambridge 28 Shelford 22 - Try scorers: Sam Jones, Ed Lowe, Rew George, James Knoop. Conversion: Ed Lowe 

Cambridge treated this match as if it were a cup final and it was their extra passion and commitment which won out over a tired Shelford side on Sunday. The pattern was disrupted as Cambridge continually illegally killed ball at the ruck by flopping down to the ground and sealing the ball off. However there is a learning point here - the boys need to learn to play the referee and adapt to his interpretation of the rules. Shelford started well and were camped in the Cambridge half in the early part of the game. But Cambridge broke out and their pacy backs engineered the first score, which was converted. Shelford hit back through a powerful drive from second row Sam Jones. The pace of the Cambridge backs continued to cause Shelford problems, which was exacerbated by some weak first up tackling from Shelford. This allowed Cambridge to go under the posts again for another converted try. Again Shelford kept in touch through an Ed Lowe try. It was 14-10 to Cambridge at the end of the first period.

Game 1: Sharks 40 Cambridge 30 -  Joe Davies (4), Harry Punshon, Conor Caughtry (2), William Barnett

Game 2: Sharks 45 Cambridge 40 - Punshon (2), Charlie Hurd (2), Caughtry, Ben Hancock, Ollie French Davies (2)

Game 3: Sharks 35 Cambridge 25 - Punshon, Davies (4), Barnett, Hurd

Game 4: Saints 15 Cambridge 20 - Fox Pollock, Harvey Skellern, Seb Clatworthy

Game 5: Saints 25 Cambridge 30 - Skellern, Joshua Speechley, Nicolas Quinton, Ethan Karpuk, Toby Morrison

Game 6: Saints 30 Cambridge 20 - Speechley (3), Arthur Waddington, Charlie Boyle, Karpuk

Game 7: Saints 30 Cambridge 25 - Speechley (4), Waddington, Karpuk 

Report: 

This week the Shelford U8’s made the short journey to Grantchester Road and Cambridge Rugby Club.  Both sides played some exciting, free flowing and entertaining rugby.  Most notably both clubs demonstrated the benefits of strong support play close to the try line.  On several occasions strong individual runs were halted close to the line but tries resulted from close support play. Shelford Sharks won all 3 of their games, scoring 24 tries, but their second game proved the most exciting.  Shelford conceded an early try and then both sides matched each others scoring with Shelford always one score behind.  With the score tied at 40-40 Cambridge restarted the game for the final play.  Committed Shelford tagging resulted in a Cambridge handling error and Joe Davies got on the end of some strong Shelford running to touch down for the winning try.   Special mention goes to Joe Davies who scored 10 tries on the day but The Shelford Sharks Player of the Day award went to Conor Caughtry who ran hard, supported well and chased down tags in all three games. The Shelford Saints won 2 of their 4 matches and in the two games they lost they were only 1 try behind Cambridge.  This was all the more notable a success because the Shelford Saints included a number of new and less experienced players, many of whom got their names on the score sheet.  Special mention goes to Joshua Speechley for his 8 tries but the Shelford Saints Player of the Day award went to Arthur Waddington who played well all day and scored important tries in their two victories. With 5 wins in 7 matches and an aggregate winning score of 220 – 190, all the Shelford players can be proud of their efforts.   

Under 7’s

Aggregate: Shelford 70 Cambridge 100 

Shelford Sharks 15 Cambridge A’s 35 

Shelford Lions 10 Cambridge B’s 40 

Shelford Sharks 25 Cambridge A’s 20 

Shelford Lions 20 Cambridge B’s 5  

Report: 

On a deceptively cold morning, Shelford U7s showed the improvement in their game since they last met Cambridge to end the morning with a draw of 2 games each. Shelford Sharks started the proceedings with three tries scored by George Shannon, Toby Owers and Ruaidhri Carey. However, the Cambridge opposition made the most of the gaps left in the Shelford defence and won the first game with seven tries. In their second game the Sharks learned from their mistakes and closed their defences with some relentless tagging. Cambridge played an excellent game and scored 4 tries but the Sharks support of the ball carrier ensured a hat-trick from Joshua Barrett, and tries from George Shannon and Toby Owers to result in a 25-20 win for Shelford. Two of these tries resulted from runs down the entire length of the pitch. The Lions struggled to maintain their defence in their first game and Cambridge made the most of the opportunity to score 8 tries. The Lions kept up their attack throughout and 2 tries from Harvey Taylor demonstrated that the team had the ability to penetrate the Cambridge defence and start to fight back. In their second game, the Lions really “started to roar” with some superb attacking runs by the entire team. Cambridge broke through the tagging defence only once to score a try. Shelford tries from Jo Huntly, Thaddeus Glass (2) and Toby Owers resulted in a well deserved win. Player of the day was Vinnie Allan.