With injury problems still persisting the U15s fielded 16 against an Eastleigh squad with some pretty big units in the pack and back line.

Under Craig Steven’s captaincy we saw something that we don’t usually see – the team starting the first half strong and wide awake!

Matt Real showed his pace early on to score in the corner after a great cross field run. The pack showed early dominance of the scrum and were asked to stop pushing during most of them. In a classic No 8 move, Michael Bryce went through to score his first and quickly followed by a pick and run move straight off the training pitch to score his 2nd.

The centres pairing of Aiden Wallen-France and Matt Real were very effective against the big units and defence in general was solid across the back line.

The last play of the 1st half saw a well worked play from Eastleigh down the line as they started to get back in the game to score. Half time score 17 – 7.

The second half saw two quick tries from E&R. One from Matt Real in the corner and a brilliant solo run to score under the posts, caught from the kickoff ball, by David Lorton. Eastleigh were by no means were finished though and slowly started to get more possession and worked two good tries in quick succession to get back into the game.

In one of the best moves of the match, Jake Penrose ran a full 50 metres to the corner and offloaded to Aiden Wallen-France just before he got put into touch for Aiden to score. Eastleigh bounced back and again pushed up the field to score twice. It was certainly getting very close by this time and the game could have easily gone either way. But the E’s came out the stronger and after some more pack dominance, Bonner Cockayne was able to ground the ball by the posts. Final Score 42 – 33.

This was another fantastic team effort by all 16. Great teamwork and effort saw us win. You played as a team and won as a team.

Manager’s Man of the match was really tough one today as I thought everyone had a good game. There could have been 7 or 8 very worthy winners. Apart from the great teamwork I think it was the ruck and counter ruck that won us the day. This week Fergus Crichton get’s the nod. At the heart of most of ruck action and often emerging with ball from the maul, he did what a good prop / 2nd row does. Time and time again he got up the field and made good ground. A solid consistent work rate that gave us a good platform to reset and recycle.

Many thanks again to those that helped in the kitchen and to Nigel who cooked the food at home and brought it to the club – it is very much appreciated.

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