Saints 10s march up to Caldy

ANSELMIANS U10’s MATCH REPORTS

The Saints v Caldy RUFC
11/12/16

“Draws all round – probably a fair result”

MOTM – Felix James

On another fresh winter’s morning at Caldy Rugby Club and a fantastic turn out from The Saints – 22 players today at U10 level ….. absolutely brilliant! However, quantity did not necessarily lead to quality from either side.

The opening fixture was the dedicated match for the Paul Close Trophy and ended in a super competitive 4-4 draw. There were plenty of positives and generally speaking we looked after the ball well, we didn’t panic and our pick and drive was of a decent standard. Our rucking was very good, regularly counter-rucking Caldy off the ball, we looked very strong and aggressive and never took a backward step – well done boys.

We do need to work harder on the structure of our play, several members of the team wouldn’t (or maybe couldn’t) pass the ball and we also took to running across or even backwards on occasion! The boys were also guilty of another bug-bear of mine, running back to where the ball came from. For some reason the boys are always keen to run back into the opposition’s defence rather than running into the unoccupied grassy areas! We are working very hard on the “game” of Rugby Union and trying to understand our role when we don’t have the ball. There is no doubt though, when we play well, we play very, very well!

We fielded two even squads and there were some stellar performances, it was great to see Koby Abbott back and so close to a try (even though I was happier to see him smashing through a tackle), Finnan Ashton looked good too. Will Fildes, Will O’Halloran and Max Frodsham all performed at a high level. Across the cricket square it was great to see the determination and grit from Sam Booth and Conor Grealis. Josh Roe and Oliver Arnold looked menacing in attack too!

Our top performer of the day today was Felix James who was simply awesome! His distribution was excellent, his attack and defence was both intelligent & ferocious. When Felix plays like this he is very difficult to stop and even more difficult to get past. Well played Felix!

Thanks to our hosts Caldy, who retained the Paul Close Trophy, we will give it our best shot to get it back in 2017!

Have a great Christmas Party next week (unfortunately I can’t be there) and if I don’t see you beforehand have a wonderful Christmas & New Year.

Have a great week and see you in 2017,

Dano
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