Colts

The first Welwyn try came from exactly this type of play, and Shelford soon found themselves 7-0 down.
Shelford then had some periods of pressure, but this wasn't exerted as poor ball presentation and a lack of 'drive through' at the rucks meant that we were driven off our own ball on a number of occasions too. Both sides were infringing at the rucks with hands in on regular occasions, which meant for a very scrappy period of play and real flow to the game. Shelford need to be smarter at this, by driving over the ball and giving cleaner ball at the back of the ruck.

Shelford's backs stuttered on the occasions we had ball in hand, and were hesitant going forward which meant a lack of depth and a lot of overrun balls on the flanks. Welwyn prospered from this 'stop-start' affair and were again able to rumble over for a couple of tries, the second one of these was a classic case of leaving the tackle to somebody else and Welwyn crossed unopposed for a 21-0 lead and were in danger of running away with it.This stung Shelford into action, and our only real up-tempo part of the half when we went through a number of phases lead to an overlap against a stretched defence and a final draw and pass by Lewis Green put Toby Poirier in to the corner and open our account prior to half-time at 21-5.

A Welwyn penalty and well executed catch & drive at the lineout saw them put more daylight on the scoreboard at 29-10, but at this stage the game had become a more open affair and suited Shelford's more 'up-tempo' style of play. Sam Porter was having a stormer at the breakdown, winning numerous turnovers but Shelford failed to convert these opportunities from promising positions, and kicked away a lot of possession while in the opposition's half rather than back themselves and get support to the breakdown, which in most cases was there on the shoulder.

Under 15's

Ely 14 Shelford 44

Ely presented a stiff challenge to Shelford u-15s. Shelford got off to the better start, running in two tries, although Ely did not make it easy for them. Ely regrouped and touched down twice to put them ahead at 14-10. The Shelford team were unable to replicate the structured approach of their game the previous week but did not let their heads go down and displayed considerable resilience, fighting back strongly. Whilst Ely continued to pose a threat in what was a very physical game, Shelford nosed ahead again and gradually took the points to win by a convincing margin.

This was a tough game and we look forward to welcoming Ely to the Davey Field for the return fixture. Try scorers were Taje Wells, getting his hat trick, Connor Hein Jones with two tries, and touch-downs from Chris Oram, Dom Talbot and Callum Lees. Conor Sullivan kicked the conversions, a task made trickier by his team mates’ annoying habit of scoring right in the corner. Let us hope they have more consideration next week and make more of an effort to place the ball towards the posts!