| Youth Reports - 17/4/11 |
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| Written by Andrew Baron | |
| Sunday, 17 April 2011 | |
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Under 15's - Colchester Festival Cheshunt 19 Shelford 7 Try and conversion: James Knoop Under 14s Shelford 49 Haverhill 5 Our scheduled opposition, Eton Manor, pulled out as they could not raise a squad. Ironically, neither could Shelford or Haverhill, who stepped in for the fixture at the last minute. Shelford mustered 12 players and Haverhill 8. Unfortunately one of the Shelford team took a knock during training - and then there were 11. Nothing daunted, the decision was taken to play 10 a side, Shelford loaning players to Haverhill. Mathematics got in the way of this plan and a total of 19 players meant Haverhill started with 10 and Shelford with 9. Shelford took the lead in the first half when Sam Barratt touched down, and Conor Sullivan kicked the conversion. Further tries followed for Shelford, scored by David Pugh and Jack Baribeau, each converted by Conor, and resulting in a half-time score of 21-0. Laurence Oxley caught the ball from Haverhill’s second-half kick-off and made a very swift and determined run through the Haverhill defence to place the ball under the posts, the conversion successfully kicked by Freddie Finlayson. Haverhill responded by breaking through for an unconverted try. David Pugh then scored three successive tries down the left wing, with good passing play between David and Conor. Conor’s skilful boot meant that all three tries were converted, and left the final score at 49-5. This was a great morning’s rugby, played in good spirit in glorious sunshine, and with all players getting 100% game time. Despite the score line, Haverhill provided determined and physically strong opposition and made Shelford work for the result. Notable on Shelford’s part was the 100% try conversion rate, with great kicking by Conor and Freddie. Particular credit goes to those Shelford players who donned the Haverhill jersey and gave their very best for the opposition cause – thanks to Freddie Finlayson and James Lister O’Shea (first half) and Sam Barratt and Jack Baribeau (second half). Particular thanks also go to the Haverhill players for turning out at short notice and giving us a game. Under 12's - Sudbury Festival Shelford 0 – 5 Woodbridge In a hard fought game Shelford spent most of the time defending and our defence eventually cracked to allow a try with a couple of minutes to play. Shelford 25 – 5 Sudbury - Try Scorers: Ryan Deamer, Louis Neal, Eric Bell, Harrison Clough, Tristan Touge Shelford remembered to attack in this game which resulted in a win by 5 tries to 1. Our first came from Ryan who broke through after receiving the ball from Stan Clark. Our second came soon after when Louis caught the ball deep in his own half to run powerfully to make it over in the corner. The third at the start of the second half, we recycled the ball after a period of pressure moving from left to right hand side to Eric Bell to make it over in the corner. Sudbury got one back. Our fourth came from Harrison Clough, his first for the club. Our last was scored by Tristan after a powerful run. Shelford 0 – 5 Hadleigh Similar to the first game, Shelford performed heroics defending their own try line and finally conceded with a minute to go. Too late to get anything out of the game. Shelford 10 – 5 Colchester - Try Scorers: Harrison Clough & Bradley Goss This was Shelford U12’s last game on a mini pitch and we finished with a win to a strong Colchester side. Harrison Clough put in another good performance with a try earlier in the first half. Colchester got one back. However we pressed, won penalty 5 metres out, our set play teed up Bradley to power through the Colchester defence and score. No score in a closely fought second half Under 11's - Tour to Shropshire Some have returned this evening from a weekend of activities - that involved Condover Hall adventure instructors hosting our and many other teams on a range of outdoor activities in glorious weather. For us most of these activities involved climbing smooth walls; walls with handholds; climbing jungles and the ultimate " Leap of faith" - climbing a vertical pole some 10 m + high onto a narrow top and leaping onto a trapeze bar many feet away - and yes even the parents joined in with Stuart Thompson clinging onto the greatest distance ( just like spiderman !). The boys had a great day with some showing potential to be future Chris Bonington's. Shelford 2 (10) : Stamford 0 Tries : Sam Hurd 1; Joe Thompson 1 What a start, probably our quickest with swift ball coming from the scrum and Sam Hurd cutting between their fly half and centre to run the length of the field to score an excellent try within 40 seconds !. Stamford were rocked back by this but fought back with some solid runs of their own but solid defence and scrummaging gave them little space to manoeuvre. The boys played expansive rugby with the ball passing through the hands of most of the backs in this game to find Joe Thompson positioned perfectly outside our wing man ( Josh Whitmore) to run half the pitch to score another excellent try. With only 3 minutes to go in a brief 10 minute game Stamford fought back and had us pined close to the line but solid defence kept them out to the whistle blew. A great result given this team beat the competition winners ( Nottingham) in a county competition some weeks ago. Unfortunately for us Tom French went down we fear with heat fatigue and was unable to play any further part in the tournament. A big blow given his tackle count and swift passing skills in the 1st game. A mad scramble ensued as we moved Joe Thompson into the backs (thanks Joe ......... we think you enjoyed the experience !). Shelford 0 : Newark Vipers 0 Although some of their boys towered over our players their scrummaging and open play was no better than ours. Although not sure if it was moving boys positionally or the boys were all feeling the heat, but we failed to break this side down despite camping on their try line and one one occasion being over it but Hayden not being able to ground the ball. The defence was sound but the attacking play lacked our normal urgency. At the end they too crossed our line for a held up try and the game fizzled out with a nil all draw - the boys were visibly deflated and knew that collectively they had this team on the rack but failed to close the game out ! The boys then endured another long wait ahead of playing 'Burntwood' a team possessing some huge players. We expected a tough time having watched them play Newark in the 1st game. Shelford 2 : Burntwood 0 The evenings were entertaining with the boys playing pool and a range of other games , that included pillow fights and anything for some to avoid going to bed ! Despite this Their energy was not daunted come the rugby festival today. Blistering heat and unfortunately a late KO for our boys did not help (11.30 am ) given we were all there for 9.30 am ! The saving grace was of the two pools we faced upto Stamford who we have at least played before. Tries : Henry Breeze 1; Archie Davison 1 Once again we moved players around just to try find combinations that worked. Findlay Thompson moved to scrum half with Julian having a go at full back. Having moved the backs about the forwards chose to raise their game in a big way. Low hard driving by Harvey ; Josh Butler and Archie created a solid platform with Findlay realising that scrum half was a easy position to play ! ......... snilpping down the left flank with Henry Breeze in support. As Findlay was taken down Henry gathered and drove over the line to score. The forward continued to dominate with Archie Davison driving through the maul with ball in hand to reach over the line to score - unfortunately one was disallowed due to the ball being gathered in a forward position. One memorable but broozing moment was a double tackle by Nicholas Budenberg and Archie Davison levelling a huge Burntwood player. Fortunately no damage was done but this showed how hard the boys were working for each other. Our fourth and final game of the Pool was played against the hosts Telford who had looked sharp in previous games. Shelford 5 ( 25) : Telford 1 (5) Tries : Julian Renwick 2; Findlay Thompson 2; Joe Thompson 1 This was probably our best played game of the morning encounters. For the simple reason we passed and passed and passed and generally to a player close at hand rather than 20 ' away. This made a huge difference - less ball spilled on attack and more player drawn into the game. The tackling was once again fierce with almost our complete squad pulling down rampaging Telford players. Findlay Thompson had the measure of his opposite scrum half and blasted two excellent breakaway tries down either side of the scrum from some way out. He continue to be elusive and fed Julian Renwick a solid pass on the right wing for Julian to weave through to score a well worked try. With his confidence high Julian found space down the right wing again to score another try in the corner. Solid running and confidence under the high ball by Will Stepney was asl of feature of this and other games through the morning. Amongst all this Joe Thompson played with skill courage and dexterity to weave his way through the complete Telford team to score the closing try. This game was a complete team game with forwards such as Harvey; Henry; Archie; Nick and Josh Butler dominating both line out and set piece scrums. We were through to the semi final ................ what a result ! Shelford 1 (5) : Cooke 3 (15) Tries : Joe Thompson 1 The team we met in the semi-final, I had refereed early in the day - the Irish boys from Belfast were large, very fast and extremely aggressive nevertheless our boys were up for the challenge. As expected from our first kick off to them they ran everything at us. Shelford hammered them back time after time but the recycled ball and any spilled ball tended to fall into the hands of a Cooke player. Unfortunately for the game there were countless stoppages as the coaching contingent from Cooke found many reasons to complain about our boys play - from what the ref and we could see there was no foul tackles or hand offs ! Yet this disrupted our flow and concentration, inevitably the Cooke players broke out through their swift backs to score two excellent tries. Joe Thompson intercepted a pass to charge down the side line to dive over for a try, a great bit of individual skill. Their final try was probably down to weak tackling on our part allowing them to move the ball out wide and outflank us. However there were memorable moments Nicholas delivering a perfectly time head on tackle; Harvey breaking free with the ball and being pulled up short of the line. Josh Butler holding his ribs but playing on without complaining. Findlay Thompson losing the sole of his boot ( buy him some new ones dad !). The complete Newark squad wanting to play for Shelford when Josh Whitmore took a bad knock to his head, this ended his game after some solid runs through the day down either wing. Above all else I asked Hayden which team did he like playing against the most .............. it was Cooke ! Our boys like the big games and I suspect relish the dual; - WIN OR LOSE. To close out the day having come 3rd out of 10 teams with a team of boys playing often out of position was an excellent result. The final was drawn between Cooke and Nottingham RFC but on try count for the day Nottingham were worthy winners of the trophy. A telling comment was made by the Stamford head coach - he said remember these boys ( Shelford) you have been beaten by one of the greatest sides in the Eastern Counties ! Finally a thank you to those whose parents and players who participated in the tour. A special thank you to Claire for making the tour happen and for such excellent organisation for months leading up to the event. A big thanks to Joe and Sam Hurd + parents for travelling on the day to help us have a complete team. I enjoyed this tour and hope for the year group that more will participate next year - we had great fun and our boys were a credit to Shelford RFC and a pleasure to be with. All the best and look forward to the next sequence of games (30th April ) for those wanting to participate in the Northampton RFC festival. Under 10's - Sudbury Festival Yet again beautiful weather and an impressive pre Easter turnout meant that Shelford Under 10s had a very enjoyable day, entering one team into what proved to be the most competitive tournament of the season. Shelford 10 - Hadleigh 0 Play got off to a good start for the Shelford team. Great passing and good solid defence meant that Shelford looked in control for most of the match. A thundering run from Michael after some excellent moves by Will led to the first try of the match. Despite the narrowness of the pitch which hampered the flow of play somewhat, during the second half there were a series of great passing moves, and some excellent tackling particularly by Will and Ed. Bart then scored the second try of the game after a good drive from Shelford, leading Shelford to secure a comfortable victory in their opening match. Shelford 0 – Colchester 5 Shelford played one of the eventual joint champions in what proved to be an incredibly gruelling match. The boys kept their heads and did some truly admirable defence work and were unlucky not to score from plays by Will and Bart. Jack and Ed did some outstanding tackling that really helped keep Colchester out of our half. Although Shelford did some good rucking and tried to punch through the Colchester line, they were unable to score. A creditable performance from Shelford, particularly given the strength of the Colchester team. Shelford 0 – Saffron Walden 0 In a rather bad tempered match in which Bart suffering an unfortunate tackle just as he looked likely to score, Shelford played some good solid rugby. The tackles were going in, with a really good run from Nathan pushing Walden into their half. On several occasions Shelford looked likely to score but just missed out in a very tense closely contested match. Since Shelford had more tries overall, it was Shelford that went through to the semi final. SEMI FINAL Shelford 5 - Sudbury 15 In a very good spirited match against another of the eventual joint champions, there was some fine rugby from both sides. Sudbury had a really good passing game and some strong players. Shelford did some good defence work and there was great tackling by all but the Sudbury players were exceptionally good at getting the break away try. Michael did well to prevent another try by bundling a Sudbury player off the pitch almost on the Shelford line and Will and Jack did some exceptionally good tackling. What was nice to see was the good commitment throughout, with excellent play from everyone concerned including James who made his debut for Shelford this Sunday. After some good attacking moves, Will then scored a well deserved and really beautiful try after a long nippy run taking it round the Sudbury line. All in all the tournament was incredibly close fought, with some really excellent rugby and most of us stayed to watch the final between Sudbury and Colchester which resulted in a draw. So Shelford ended up coming joint 3rd with Bury St Edmunds. Joint winners were Sudbury and Colchester. Sadly Conrad got a big bump on his head from a knee and missed our later matches. He was very brave about it and he was pronounced fine by St John’s medics. Under 9's - Sudbury Festival Shelford 15 Woodbridge 5 Shelford 20 Sudbury B 0 Shelford 0 Colchester A 20 Cup Semi Final - Shelford 0 Sudbury A 15 A great performance from all the players on a hot and very long day at Sudbury. An excellent start playing some of the season’s best rugby saw us winning the first two pool matches. We were able to play our fast running game and with some great defence never looked like losing either match The final pool game against Colchester A, after what seemed like a 2 hour break, highlighted again that we need to increase our intensity to beat more physical sides The semi-final was a step forward as we battled against the eventual cup winners Sudbury A (they beat Colchester A 20 – 0 in the final) showing what can be achieved when we are fully committed Our tackling has become a real strength and Sudbury only scored one break away try. The other two came from our naivety when we were pushed over our own line and instead placing the ball down and conceding a scrum we lost the ball meaning Sudbury just had to touch down to score two very easy tries. All of the best sides tend to be bigger and heavier but we are very close to being able to overcome this and dictate our style of play Elliot, Glen, Richard and I met last week to discuss what we do next season (parents feedback from Ali & Mike has been very helpful) and will be sending out an outline plan for 2011-12 There is no training over Easter, so enjoy the holidays and hopefully see you all on Sunday 1st May for Presentation Day Under 8’s – Sudbury Festival Shelford v Woodbridge D 35-35 Harry Punshon (2), Joshua Speechley, Joe Davies (4) Shelford v Sudbury D 35-35 Harvey Skellern (2), Speechley, Ben Hancock, Davies, Charlie Hurd, Ollie French Shelford v Hadleigh D 30-30 Hancock, William Barnett, Speechley (4) Shelford v Colchester L 10-30 Speechley, Davies Report: In rugby sometimes the luck goes with you and sometimes it goes against you. Today Shelford U8s played in the Sudbury Festival and didn’t seem to have been in the queue when the luck was dished out. They played four games in the group stage, drawing three and losing one. With just a little luck they could quite easily have won three. In their first game against Woodbridge, Shelford were 25-5 up at half-time but in the second half Woodbridge came back strongly. Shelford were still one try ahead going into the final play of the match when Woodbridge scored a controversial try making the final score 35 – 35. Joe Davies again demonstrated the benefits of strong support play scoring 4 tries, with the other Shelford tries coming from Joshua Speechley and Harry Punshon (2). In the second game Shelford again played out a very close encounter, drawing 35 – 35 with Sudbury. This time both sides took it in turns to score the tries but Shelford just stayed ahead and were again leading by a single try going into the final play. In what seemed a repeat of the previous game, this time Sudbury scored a controversial try to end the game in a draw. The Shelford tries were shared between Harvey Skellern (2), Joshua Speechley, Ben Hancock, Joe Davies, Charlie Hurd and Ollie French. In the third game Shelford played out their third consecutive draw, this time 30 – 30 against Hadleigh. Joshua Speechley showed his speed to score four tries, with one each for William Barnett and Ben Hancock. Shelford had three points from three draws going into the final group game but now they faced Colchester who had nine points after winning all three of their games. A good win for Shelford might have taken them into the knock-out stages of the Festival but Shelford were outplayed by a side that ran hard and repeatedly but pressure on the attacking team. Shelford didn’t let their heads drop and scored two good tries but eventually lost 10 – 30, with the Shelford tries coming from Joshua Speechley and Joe Davies. In their final club fixtures of the season, Shelford U8s again acquitted themselves well and represented the club in the right spirit. They can be proud of how they played and on another day the luck will be with them. Under 7’s – Sudbury Festival Shelford 30 Woodbridge35 Shelford 30 Sudbury10 Shelford 15 Hadleigh20 Shelford 15 Colchester25 Report: With a number of players on holiday a diminished Shelford U7s squad made the long and winding journey to Sudbury’s ground for a well organised event in some glorious sunshine. The first game against Woodbridge was a very even match. Shelford finished the first half with 3 tries to Woodbridge’s 4 and matched Woodbridge’s three tries in the second half to finish 30-35 down. The Shelford tries were from Freddie Sales, Toby Owers, Thaddeus Glass (2), Brian O’Shea and Joe Huntly. Shelford’s second game was against Sudbury and Shelford attacked hard and ended the first half 10-0 up with tries from Brian O’Shea and Thaddeus Glass. Sudbury hit back in the second half with 2 tries but three tries from Joshua Barrett and one from Ruaidhri Carey meant Shelford finished the game 30-10 in the lead. The third game against Shelford scored tries from Vinnie Allan, Thaddeus Glass and Billy White but Hadleigh scored one more to make the score 15-20. In Shelford’s final match the first half finished a draw with tries from Vinnie Allan and Thaddeus Glass to match Colchester’s 2 tries. In the final half however, the Shelford squad started to tire and despite a further try from Thaddeus, Colchester scored three tries to end the game 15-25. Overall, Shelford deserve to hold their heads high. They played some great rugby, showed some excellent skills and were unlucky that two of the games didn’t end as draws. Player of the Day was Billy White for some excellent runs down the pitch and his first match try in only his second week of rugby. |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 19 April 2011 ) |
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