U13's Warriors (15) v Old Ruts B (5)

Match Report

After an enforced lay off due to the big freeze the Warriors band wagon was back on the road for our second league fixture against the self-proclaimed 'mighty Ruts'.

Ruts arrived with a full squad looking and sounding confident with a couple of players looking big enough to play adult rugby let alone Under 13. This was a slight worry as we were a man short due to several players being unavailable.

After losing the toss the Warriors received possession from the kick off and started well with the forwards driving in and retaining possession well. After a few minutes of good possession the ball found its way to captain Lucas O'Toole-Smith in the centres who broke a couple of tackles before turning on the after burners to scorch over the line to score the Warriors first try. Everybody was delirious apart from kicker Huw Green who insisted Lucas should have made it under the posts to make his conversion attempt easier!

Old Ruts kicked off again to the hungry Warriors who again kept possession well in break down after break down moving the bigger Ruts pack around the pitch. With good possession the back line was running and passing freely leading to winger Usher Wrightman using his pace to find space to score Warriors second try. This led to 2 things: 1. Huw Green again grumbling that Usher could have scored closer to the posts and 2. more amusingly, Mike Stallard the Old Ruts supremo going into apoplectic shock at the Ruts tackling.

The Ruts did start to bring the game to the Warriors, mostly by their big lads winning line-out ball and driving forwards. The Warriors forwards struggled to bring the big Ruts lad to ground but the Warriors proved to have a defensive edge as they held out for a 10-0 half time lead.

After an encouraging half time talk from Coach Matt Bell the Warrior restarted with his instruction of better tackling ringing in their ears. The Warriors continued to bring the game to Ruts with a period of pressure resulting in Huw Green scoring under the posts. He remarked that was where he wanted the tries scored- under the posts.

As Ruts used their subs and our 14 players began to tire our defence was again tested but our defence held  with some ferocious tackling epitomised by Freddie Johnson-Bailey who put in a bone crunching tackle of the day on one of their big lads who was in full flight from a penalty.

With time ebbing away Ruts got a consolation try from a pass interception when it looked like the Warriors were going to finish with a final try. However it was not to be and the game finished with a deserved 15-5 victory for the Warriors.

Snap shots of the game.

Author: Terry Baxter